Setting the Right Goals for Democracy

There is old tape of Andre Agassi returning Pete Sampras' serve. Sampras pounds the ball down the middle, and Agassi whips it cross court, leaving Sampras to watch the ball fuzz fly by.

Before Agassi, the return of serve was pure defense: block the ball back, a prayer to keep it in play. But Agassi saw it differently. Where others saw a defensive shot, he saw an offensive play.

The goal of the return of serve, he said, was to neutralize the ball. Take away some of the power your opponent put on it and get you both on a level playing field.

You could argue it wasn't an ambitious enough goal. Why not make the goal to dominate the point?

Because it's an unreasonable amount of pressure to put on one action.

That's like making daily calls to my Senator the thing that heals democracy. And if they don't do that, well, then why bother?

What Agassi's goal does is get you into the point. And now that you've walked in the door, anything's possible.

Calls to our Senator - a high-impact way to do that here - won't repair America. But they are a tool in the democracy toolbox, a way to hold politicians accountable to their voters.

Goals, rightly sized, can set the table for wins. With a few smart calls to the Senator's office, the staffer recognizes us, starts to realize that people who care about our issue are decent and reasonable, perhaps starts to listen a little differently to our cause.

We can't change everything all at once. But we can change small pieces every day. "Do your little bit of good where you are," advised Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "It's those little bits of good strung together that overwhelm the world."

Goals wrongly sized, though, can grind us down to burnout. Didn't save democracy with that email, didn't win the point with that return of serve becomes a fast track to giving up. And if there's anything our democracy can't afford right now, it's people throwing in the towel.

Teddy Roosevelt was fond of the line, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Which seems like a useful goal for this moment.