Main Entry: de·moc·ra·cy

Pronunciation: di-’mä-kr&-sE

Function: noun

Inflected Form: plural -cies

1 a : government by the people; especially: rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

2 : a political unit that has a democratic government —dem·o·crat·ic /”de-m&-’kra-tik/ adjective —dem·o·crat·i·cal·ly adverb

As Mr. Webster so gloriously put it, democracy consists of government by the people, generally involving “periodically held free elections.” In case you haven’t heard, we have one of those periodically held free elections coming up before long.

Whether you’re a fan of McCain, Obama, Nader or another third party, there is a part of the above definition that is the hallmark of democracy: rule of the majority.

That’s an important concept in any democracy, and one that is often over looked. Majorities make decisions, and majorities are — generally speaking — made of minorities knit together in a common cause. Political power in a democracy is, of course, carried by those who can garner the most votes, and so the constituencies that vote most consistently tend to get their issues addressed most often.

Think of health care and social security, two issues which predominantly affect senior citizens. Senior citizens are 10 percent more likely to vote than the national average, and 60 percent more likely than young people, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

Students, of course, have issues that need to be addressed, too. Student debt, the future of higher education, the economy and jobs — there’s quite a list. The economy and jobs affect everyone, and have become into major issues in this election. Student debt and higher education, however, are pet issues of college students.

Why don’t we hear much about them? Well, college students constitute a pretty miniscule minority. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are fewer than 20 million students in American institutions of higher education. Many don’t register to vote. Needless to say, the political club wielded by the nation’s college-aged voters dwindles with every non-voting college student.

The simple fact is this: If we want our politicians to pay attention to our issues, as college students, we must make our voices heard at the ballot box.

The ancient Athenians — the inventors of democracy — coined a word for those within their society for those who didn’t participate in the civic life of their city-state: idiotes, which came down to us in Latin as idiota, and through French as idiote. Eventually it arrived in the English speaking world as idiot.

So, don’t be an idiot. Vote.