But when she sought re-election as an independent, she couldn't get her name on the ballot. The two parties had passed a law requiring anyone who changed party affiliation to wait 18 months before running for office again. A loophole allowed her to run as a write-in candidate, which she did. But she lost.
Since then, she and Joelle Riddle have filed a law suit challenging a state law that allows Dems and Repubs to collect twice as much in contributions as unaffiliated candidates; yet another way to repress outsiders.
One of the other speakers was Wayne Griffin, a long time African American independent and chair of the South Carolina Independence Party. With the help of Independentvoting.org he sued the South Carolina legislature to make them stop their efforts to pass a law that would have instated a closed primary system. He argued that the measure was reminiscent of the old South Carolina, when similar laws were used to discriminate against Black voters.
BTW, as another example of institutional repression, who can forget the film of Ralph Nader being forbidden entrance into the 2000 presidential debates by the police in Boston? Polls showed that the public wanted to give Nader a chance to intellectually confront Dem Gore and Repub Bush, but the two-party system's Commission on Presidential Debates put its own interests above the public interest.
These are three examples of institutional political repression in the USA. The two-party system has a lock on the supposedly democratic process of election -- both state and federal. For the people this means that we do not get to hear the voices of those who care about the country, but who don't care to be a cog in the two-party machinery. Voices outside that system are silenced all over the country. We are told by the sycophants of the two-party system that the two parties are the proof of our freedom. Since we learn to think that way, we cannot conceptualize the two-party system as our very repressor -- but in fact it is.
Here are some more examples of how the American people are repressed by the two-party system. Closed primaries bar non-party voters from taking part in the selection of candidates for office. While nearly 40% of the voters in this country identify themselves as "independent," in states with closed primaries none of them can vote for the Dem or Repub -- although either a Dem or Repub will govern them. In these states, independents are only allowed to vote in the general election, which presents them with a choice from the "left overs" of the primary election. These independents are only "free" to chomp on the bones the two-party system tosses them.
For independent minded folks to vote in a closed primary process they would have to betray their moral integrity and lie when they register to vote by claiming to be a "Dem" or a "Repub." Because they refuse to do this, they are barred from voting in the primary election. Punished for their personal integrity? That is repression.
In June of 2010, the voters in California rebelled against this form of repression. Roughly 3.5 million voters with personal integrity were barred from voting in that state's closed primary system. But when Proposition 14 offered them a chance at liberation, they took it. Independentvoting.org was one of the main advocates of this law. (For more on Prop 14, see my articles on OpEdNews.)
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