To the editor:
Americans are very politically divided. Of the roughly 57.9 percent of eligible voters that voted in the presidential election, 48.2 percent voted for Hillary Clinton and 46.1 percent voted for Donald Trump.
I had long prided myself as an independently minded, unenrolled voter. Last winter, as the Republican primary was sinking into a sickening slugfest, I decided that I needed a political home.
I took the opportunity to join the Democratic party and threw my support behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a spotless civil servant swimming against the tide of the party apparatus and its presumptive candidate.
I started attending the Lincoln County Democrats meetings and began questioning the wisdom and fairness of the superdelegate process. Others felt similarly and we moved to issue a statement expressing our displeasure with the system. The statement was defeated by one vote at the county level.
I attended the state convention as a delegate and participated in passing an amendment to limit the influence of superdelegates in selecting the Democratic candidate for the general election.
Democrats lost big this year, we all know it. With defeat comes self-reflection, and with self-reflection comes positive change. The Lincoln County Democrats is where the political rubber meets the road for progressives in Lincoln County looking to get involved.
The local Democratic Party is our best hope for affecting positive change in our county, our state, our country, and our world. It provides a grass-roots vehicle for influencing all of the consequential social, economic, environmental issues that we face. Politics is the umbrella under which we all stand to stay dry in the hard rain.
If you wish to find a political home where your progressive values and opinions matter and have consequence, please join the Lincoln County Democrats (lincolncountydemocrats.com, click on officers) and let’s get it on.
Bennett Collins
Bremen
