Politics & Power Quote by Robert Hunter

It reads like gentle advice, but it lands closer to a warning: voting is one of the few moments when ordinary people briefly touch the machinery of power, and treating it casually is a kind of self-sabotage. Coming from Robert Hunter - the Grateful Dead's lyricist and a writer steeped in American myth, skepticism, and street-level wisdom - the line carries a homespun tone that hides a harder edge. "When you get ready" implies a ritual. Voting isn't a vibe; it's a preparation. The phrase "make sure" is the parental cadence of someone who has watched others walk into preventable trouble.

The subtext is distrust - not necessarily of democracy, but of the way it gets sold. Hunter's world is full of charming hustlers, glossy promises, and narratives that feel true because they're catchy. That sensibility translates neatly to modern politics, where branding often substitutes for policy and outrage competes with attention. "Know what you are doing" pushes against the romance of the protest vote, the team-sports instinct, and the algorithm-fed certainty that you're already informed because you feel strongly.

Context matters because Hunter belonged to a countercultural generation that both believed in collective action and learned, repeatedly, how institutions absorb and neutralize it. The line doesn't ask for purity or perfect information; it asks for agency. It's a reminder that the easiest way to lose your voice is to outsource your thinking - to a party, a personality, a meme - and call it participation.