In a number of projects I've been thinking a lot about delegation: citizens delegating responsibility to elected officials, presidents to cabinets, commanders to troops. Yesterday I wondered how Memorial Day figures into the democratic process of responsible delegation.

When America goes to war, we do not require a nation-wide vote. Though president's consider public opinion, there is no Athenian requirement for consensus among citizens.

Declaration of war is instead delegated to their democratically elected representatives. That Americans can hand over a requirement to understand today's or tomorrow's wars is considered a feature of our system, not a tragically ignorant bug.

But if Americans think they are delegating foreign policy decisions and oversight to Congress, what do they believe this delegation looks like?

If Joe Citizen does not need to know the dozens of AQ affiliates implicated in the 2001 AUMF because he elected someone--or how many US forces are in conflict overseas, or to what end-- is he ok if that elected someone does not either?

The last two decades have been generally reassuring to Joe Citizen on the count of his responsibility in understanding Americas wars: troops deployments are smaller, more classified, less visible. The signal is clear: go about your life, Americas wars are not your business.

But then we reach such days as Memorial Day. Many very reasonably expect that memorializing should not be a delegated function. The tragic burdens of conflicts Americans set aside are placed back on them for a single day of intense contradictions.

Amid the ceremonies and barbecues and parades and fireworks at war with one another, I think Americans are actually still delegating the responsibility on this day, without realizing it. They are looking to veterans to honor, hold, and speak eloquently of grief in their place.

we are asking Americans for one day to recognize servicememers sacrifice--can't they give that? one thing without delegating again to people in uniform?

I'm not sure we really have been asking, adequately. And I think we've taken away the tools and context they need to do so.

I don't want to let Americans off the hook. But Memorial Day is a fraught moment in a cycle telling Americans we are not in wars they need to name, care about, pay for, vote on, or participate in. Especially so when those they delegate to scarcely take on those responsibilities.

Notable aside: I ran small nationally representative survey recently asking Americans where they believed US forces are at war--just for learning purposes, not meant to be solid data . But I thought this result was interesting