We just might be witnessing the Second American Revolution. The fight for process is gaining some traction. And wasn’t process a founding value for us?
IndependentVoting.org attorney Harry Kresky’s piece today on HuffPo Words Matter: Voters to Get Fair Wording of California Open Primary Initiative is a gem.
The assertion of such a right by the parties raises a fundamental question about the nature of our democracy. Does it rest on the rights of voters or on the rights of parties? On one level the answer is simple. The Constitution makes no mention of political parties. The Bill of Rights speaks of the “rights of the people,” not of the parties. After all, it is the people who organize the parties, so how could the rights of the parties they organize trump theirs?
We face a very serious challenge in this country every day. We can move forward, or we can stay stuck. And “stuck” in this 21st Century global post-modern world means going backwards.
In the very early days of our American revolution, soon after the independent forces won, George Washington warned us about the “baneful effects of party”.
We need a second American Revolution that frees us from the yoke of partisanship.
-NH
The Hankster
Provocateur/ pundit/ organizer Nancy Hanks is a long-time activist in the independent political movement who’s done it all: petitioning to put independent candidates on the ballot from New York to Texas and points east, west, north and south; fundraising for the independent think tank, the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), and its online counterpart, IndependentVoting.org; running as an independent for New York City Council from Queens, New York City’s most diverse borough; serving as the current Treasurer of the Queens County Committee of the Independence Party of New York (of the IP NYC Organizations); conducting research for the Neo-Independent, a magazine that addresses the concerns of independent voters.