The writer represents District 9 in Brattleboro's Representative Town Meeting,
BRATTLEBORO-The difference between our faltering two-party democracy and those with a much-more-vibrant multiparty system has been on my mind more than ever lately.
Trevor Noah made an observation in an interview recently that in most places around the world people are far less tribal in their approach to politics. What comes with having more choices of parties and candidates is a far greater willingness to be critical of those they voted for once they are in office.
Our two-party system may have developed organically at first. Those who have benefited most from this system have understood the importance of involvement before and after Election Day. Unfortunately, most people can barely manage voting.
The amount of money and effort that has been spent on distracting voters from the important issues, convincing them to vote against their own interests, encouraging apathy, and - most cynically - preventing people from voting, have escalated in recent years.
The natural result of this poorly managed binary system is that we now have a choice between democracy and giving up having to choose.
Some may be tempted by the lure of "not having to vote again," as Donald Trump has said. I say to those people: Go ahead, don't vote. It has been the prerogative of citizens to not vote since the founding of the country.
In my lifetime, typically half those who register to vote have not bothered to go to the polls, and half those who could register have not done so. I have long held that if a small number of those who don't show up got off their asses, in even the slightest hint of an organized fashion, there could be big changes, for better or worse, in this country.
As long as we maintain a semblance of democracy, we have the luxury of making mistakes, and then fixing them. Let's not make the mistake of giving it up.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "'Democracy is the worst form of government ... except for all the others."
Fric Spruyt
Brattleboro
The writer represents District 9 in Brattleboro's Representative Town Meeting,
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