Democracy was never guaranteed. Each one of us must fight for it.

The bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol sent former President Donald Trump a subpoena on Friday due to overwhelming evidence that he and his allies engaged in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

As committee co-chair Liz Cheney put it: “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion, and every American is entitled to those answers.”

But even as the Jan. 6 committee inches closer to justice for the “Big Lie,” voters are still suffering the consequences of what happened on that day and the damage inflicted on our democracy.

Our constitutional rights are still under attack as poll workers live in fear and 229 bills have been introduced that would politicize, criminalize, or interfere with our elections — all while election deniers across the country are looking to gain office in midterm elections.

Many may look at these facts and think the situation ahead looks bleak, which isn’t wrong. There’s no denying that these are all signs of an unhealthy democracy that’s bleeding out. If we continue down this path of attacking poll workers, introducing anti-democratic bills, and electing election deniers, our right to free and fair elections will dissipate and hamper our ability to pass on a healthy democracy on to future generations.

Yet, our current teetering democracy is giving us an important reminder that democracy never has been and never will ever be a guarantee. That is exactly why we need to stop taking it for granted. We must defend it with acts both big and small.

If we truly want future generations to have the privilege of voting for their representatives, we need to push back against these attacks on our democracy and take steps to ensure that we have protections against anti-democratic ideals.

The goal of upholding democracy may seem too big to handle and out of your hands, but it’s important to recognize that all great fights are made up of small, everyday acts. It can be as simple as signing up to work at the polls or join an election protection program, making nonpartisan calls, or sending postcards to voters to remind them to get out and vote, writing to a member of Congress, or turning out to local events.

Earlier this month in Charlotte, I held a large rally in support of January 6 justice and defending our freedom to vote. Just one person brought out dozens of people to show Charlotte’s politicians that democracy matters and their rights won’t be stripped away without a say.

My hope was that the “Our Freedoms! Our Vote” rally would reinvigorate a passion for our democracy and ensure attention is brought to the criminal acts of Jan. 6, 2021, and I believe it succeeded.

But whether this local event was a success or not isn’t the lesson here. There’s a lot more to be learned from people taking steps big and small to defend our democracy. It’s up to all of us to take action to protect it — from those in the halls of Congress to those on Main Street. Without a shared responsibility to uphold democracy, we will no doubt see it erode further.

This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Democracy was never guaranteed. Each one of us must fight for it.."