America has no King. Former Attorney General John Ash-croft would add "except Jesus." His exception should not offend. Most who believe in Jesus agree with Ashcroft.

For everyone else the set of "all Kings of America" is empty, which also works as a starting premise.

America's rejection of kings is our defining advantage. Our nation was conceived in defiant refusal to serve as compliant drones scurrying about at the whims of a pampered monarch. We tipped the historic power pyramid upside down, declaring through the pen of Thomas Jefferson that "Governments areinstituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed."

So, a nation of sovereign individuals was born. Our founding document begins declaring where the ultimate decisionmaking power resides: "We, the People." The Constitution's seven articles create a national government without once mentioning a person's right to vote. Some say the authors of the Constitution were naïve. Others argue they were inspired. Most historians agree that "voting" was not discussed in the original Constitution because its authors took the practice for granted. The Constitution would not be adopted without a vote of the people, and it would be back to "the people" if something went wrong and needed correction.

"Should things go wrong at any time, the people will set them right by the peaceable exercise of their elective rights," wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1806. In promoting the original Constitution, Federalist No. 52 (by "Publius," a pen name for Madison or possibly Hamilton) identifies "a vote of the people" as what checks the power of the House of Representatives. "The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government," writes Publius.

The word "suffrage" occurs only once in the original Constitution where it refers to each state having two votes in a Senate with unlimited debate. The design was to keep a powerful federal government from butting in when a decision belonged "closer to the People."

The word "suffrage" has informative roots. It dates back to Greek and is a composite of the prefix "sub," which means "under, or from below," and "frangere," which means "shattering, din or ruckus." In Athens, where the first voting in elections was done on pieces of broken pottery, the "din from below" was the people "ostracizing," or giving the boot to an unpopular politician.

In the Middle Ages the word meant "a prayer of intercession." French peasants performed "sofrage" by asking God to rescue them from plague, famine, and war. In English the word returned to its roots when the King levied taxes on everyone not in Parliament. The plea "no taxation without representation" was both a prayer for relief, and a call for having some say, "a vote," on the issue.

The genius of American voting is how it turns European "suffrage" on its head. We don't plead with our governmental leaders. They plead from us, the people. The federal government cannot raise one dime of taxes without starting in the House of Representatives, selected precisely for being answerable, every two years, to a vote of the people.

Likewise, the power to declare war, and to regulate commerce between the states, both require "authorization" from the representatives of the people in Congress assembled. In America, voting-age citizens serve as the nation's final Board of Directors.

Governing ourselves is not easy. Jefferson observed that, "though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable." We cannot, for example, vote ourselves rich, or healthy, or popular. The conservation of matter and energy, and the free will of fellow Americans, limit what can be achieved with a vote.

On Tuesday America will convene a vast meeting of its governing board, so we can make a few key policy and hiring decisions. It's important that you show up. America has no King. We have you.

Trent Clark of Soda Springs is president and CEO of Customalting Inc. and has served in the leadership of Idaho business, politics, workforce and humanities education.