Election Day In Swarthmore
By Bob Small
This was the day we had all been working, waiting for. Especially those of us in Swarthmore, Pa., the “belly of the Democratic Beast.” Republicans had been in power upon my arrival in 1988, but slowly faded from view and, for the last two decades, there have been only Democrats who have been unwelcoming to any other Parties. To be fair, there should never be a uni-party borough, or town or city.
Even, Philadelphia has a clause that requires the participation of minority parties in their City Council. This is something that might be brought up in Swarthmore and other uni party towns in Delco.
We had some fairly lively discussions and some support from Swarthmore Republicans who, since there now is a Swarthmore Republican Committee would like to participate.
Though I did receive what is known as “the Swarthmore stare” from some who knew my previous identity as “a Green”– including one who stated “it was okay for you to be a Green, whom we knew could never win, but now..” — most were curious about why the change.
Part of my explanation had to do with Gaza/Israel which had not been brought to peace in four years along with rampaging inflation, and the culture wars that had been created by changes way beyond reason.
Besides wanting to bring a new voice to Swarthmore, we also wanted to enliven discussion. Not only were there only Democrats in many vital Swarthmore positions, but only “certain types of Democrats”
Non-professionals, such as carpenters, roofers, etc., were not welcome in power regardless of their registration.
And any who disagreed with the extremist progressive line whether it be on the Mideast, or transexual participation in women sports, or even on the whole unquestioning support of the medical-industrial complex was excluded from power.
We’d lastly like to re-iterate the failure of most local Democrats to agree to participate in electoral forums with opponent Republicans. Living in fear is a terrible thing is a quote from “The Shawshank Redemption” and we think it would be therapeutic for the Democrats to leave this fear behind, as many of us have left our other fears behind.
We need a more educated and engaged electorate. Most importantly we need more, much more, citizen participation. Our form of government only works and works properly with citizen participation.
Good candidates in open primaries is the solution. Not Philly style minority party mandates that choke out third parties.
The 161st was lost because the party hacks in the GOP refused to allow an open primary and endorsed “their” candidate. Every primary, especially for municipal or state house MUST have primary options. Period.