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Each of us holds the most important title in American democracy: citizen. Yet most Americans believe we are powerless to make government respond or hold public officials accountable. A 2015 Pew Charitable Trusts survey found that 74% of Americans believe that most elected officials don’t care what people like us think. But we can make them listen-if we fully embrace our rights and responsibilities as citizens in a democracy, and use the skills of effective citizenship to make government work for us. This is not just a theory. Americans frequently prove that we can make government respond. We, the people, are the beginning and the end of our democracy-and today, more than ever, we must build and flex our citizenship muscles to fulfill that exalted status.