Time & Perspective Quote by Jim Hightower

Hightower’s line works because it refuses the most convenient story Americans tell themselves about self-government: that it’s a transaction you complete every few years and then forget. He frames democracy as labor, not ritual. “Not something that happens” is a subtle swipe at passive citizenship, at the way politics gets marketed like weather - events that arrive, get covered, and then move on. By repeating “happens,” he makes the default posture sound lazy and accidental, then replaces it with “building,” a verb that implies tools, planning, and, crucially, maintenance. You don’t “build” and walk away; you keep the structure from rotting.

The subtext is equal parts civic romance and warning. Calling democracy “an ongoing building process” suggests community: people in shared physical space making something together. But it also hints at fragility. Buildings can collapse. Processes can be sabotaged. Hightower is pushing against a culture that treats democracy as spectacle - rallies, election-night graphics, viral clips - rather than as daily practice: showing up at school board meetings, organizing workplaces, pressuring local officials, learning how power actually moves.

Context matters because Hightower’s whole brand is populist agitation: suspicion of concentrated money, impatience with elites, faith in ordinary participation. “Part of our culture, a part of our lives” is the pivot from civics-class abstraction to lived identity. He’s arguing that democracy isn’t protected by reverence; it’s protected by habit. When participation becomes cultural muscle memory, it’s harder for cynicism, voter suppression, or authoritarian nostalgia to sell themselves as normal.