If you look up “politician,” the number one definition is “one who is involved in politics;” number two is “officeholder;” and three is “one who manipulates politics for personal benefit.”

In a democratic free society where we claim the right of self-government, we should all declare ourselves to be politicians. In other words, be involved in politics.

If we leave the business of political action to others, how can we call ourselves a free democratic self-governing nation? The whole idea of the United States of America was to escape rule by kings and other despots and put the political fate of individuals in their own hands.

Good citizenship and the practice of politics are much the same. To make yourself into a politician, here is a good starting point: (1) evaluate each candidate, (2) research what duty is required of office and (3) what are the rules and requirements of each office.

Under the best definition of politician each of us could be considered a politician when we select a well-thought-out candidate to support or an issue to get behind at the polling place. If we call those who vote politicians, I don’t know what we call the more than 50% of citizens who do not take advantage of their birthright to go and exercise their discretion at election time. Certainly we would all be better off if everyone did the number one definition of politician, it is something we should work toward. And should we ever reach that goal, our country, state and local governments would all be better off and we could then refer to good citizens as politicians having lesser definitions left behind.