Commentry #2

In my colleague's blog, Left Hand Path, she discusses about our country's electoral process and how it seems to not do the democratic aspect of our country justice. In my response to her commentary I agreed with what she had to say in regard to how political parties pose a threat to the voices of this nation and that change must occur in order to progress rather than backtrack. This is what I had to say.

Although our country is not purely a democracy, rather a democratic republic, I agree with the idea of maintaining this country’s election process as democratic as possible. Having the people heard is a fundamental aspect that helped shape this country from the very beginning and by setting up roadblocks that prevent the voice of the nation from being heard, then we are backtracking as a country. In the case of political parties manipulating voter eligibility to control poll outcomes, we see what one of this country's founding fathers feared as he left office, which was the idea that political factions would ultimately harm the United States. George Washington, the founding father that I am referring to, warned in his famous Farewell Address that political parties would “subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government,” which is exactly what appears to be happening when voters are denied to practice their right to vote because they were unknowingly labeled as “unaffiliated” or “independent” in their party affiliation status. It is sad seeing that many are losing faith in this political system that we have in place now and I, once again, agree that there is definitely changes that need to happen in order to restore that faith. We’ll just have to see what the future holds for this nation.