The Democratic Party has proven to be a failure and has demonstrated time after time that it will support the agenda of corporations and the wealthy elites over the general citizenry. Due to onerous ballot access laws and the overwhelming majority of the media that are owned by the same wealthy powers who buy our politicians, third party efforts have not gotten much traction onthe heavily-sloped playing field.
I believe that a first step toward authentic democracy is to liberate citizens from party affiliation. Then, with a sufficient number of citizens who are not affiliated with either party, we can take the next step toward organizing a party that would truly represent ordinary citizens. Think of it as a weaning process.
How about a goal of making Orange County the first county in the United States to have a majority of independent or unaffiliated voters? It would not affect anyone's ability to vote in primaries - just choose which party when you vote. There would be no sacrifice of voting power, but it would send a message that we are not being adequately represented by the out-of-touch Democratic and Republican parties.
One idea is to designate one day (& time) a month as Independent's Day. This would be a time when voters would gather in Hillsborough to change their party affiliation to independent. Imagine twenty or thirty per month, with other unaffiliated voters there to welcome and support them. Maybe each Independent's Day could be marked with a small party in anticipation of a bigger and better Party to come.
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I agree with your sentiment,
I agree with your sentiment, and that's why I'm already registered as Unaffiliated. I think it will be hard to generate the passion around this issue to get a movement going, especially without a viable alternative in place. Whatever happened to the Orange County Green Party? Anyway, I will continue to remind people that they don't have to register as Democrats to vote in the primaries.
Viable alternatives have not materialized
That's why I think people should be encouraged to become unaffiliated. Then they are at least free of identification with a party that does not have their interests in mind. I'd like to hear from Democrats - why, after all the times that they've pulled the trick like Lucy played on Charlie Brown with the football, shouldn't citizens just "unaffiliate"? On the Republican side - their leaders are now caricatures like Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, Bachmann. Why not "unaffiliate" and start thinking about how to engage on the pressing issues of our time?