Worried for the future

I am an independent voter. To me, an election is basically a hiring decision. Who is the most qualified candidate? Can they be trusted to obey the rules, work hard, and solve problems?

However, these days we seem to elect political parties instead of candidates. The Founders were deeply concerned about this happening. In his farewell address in 1796, our first president seems prophetic: “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust domination.”

In my opinion, both major parties are showing signs of becoming the existential threat to democracy that our Founders feared, but the Republican Party is beginning to genuinely frighten me. Across the country, they are trying very hard to impose absurd voting restrictions that are indefensible. Widespread voter fraud is a completely fictional issue. There is simply no evidence of that happening in any meaningful amount.

America has prospered as we enfranchised all citizens over time, and this has made us a healthier democracy. Reversing that trend now just to keep one political party competitive is extremely dangerous for all of us. So to my countrymen and women who lean Republican, please consider this for the sake of us all: If you are an honest, skilled, loyal player on a baseball team that can only win if they slash the tires on the other team’s bus, maybe you should find a new team. Or form a better one.

Matthew Bruns

Wallingford