Letter: Use your vote to check one-party power

Three weeks from today voters will render a mid-term vote. Ordinarily mid-term elections are a low-turnout event, often focused on local and state-wide issues, with a nod of approval or disapproval of the incumbent administration.

But this year is different. In Dubois County, as in many places in America, we have had several years of one-party rule with our local, state and federal governments in control of the same party. Unfortunately this situation has been directed by the most corrupt, authoritative and extreme regime in American history, which is what the Republican party’s leadership have become. I certainly do not believe that most Republican are anti-democracy, hate-driven racists and fascists any more than I think most Democrats are communists, atheists or dumb. I believe that most voters and the Republican candidates on our ballot want a better life for themselves, their children, our communities, our state and our nation. They recognize that placing too much control in the hands of too few people is a formula for disaster. They understand that democracy means compromise, recognizing that the opposition may have a better grasp of the situation than they do, and that sharing power is essential to effective government.

One-party rule leads to authoritarian government. Unfortunately history shows us that when an individual or group of individuals have no check on their actions, the eventual result is tyranny. Wielding power corrupts individuals and the regimes they create. If unchecked, such a system feeds upon everything in order to expand and maintain its control.

We are living with the decades-long assault by a small number of extremely wealthy plutocrats who have created a world with the largest income inequality in history. Determined to maintain and expand that wealth, they are employing every tool at their disposal to control the direction of history. This goal is inconsistent with democracy and their movement is doing its best to undermine it around the planet. Their plutocracy is maintained by the relentless over-consumption that is driving shortages of food, water, the basic decencies of living to many of our 8 billion human residents, as well as the disastrous degradation of our common environment. To many of us, it appears that they have corrupted the Republican Party with their tactics of fear, deception, manipulation and brainwashing.

Democratic government is the last, best hope humanity has to survive their onslaught. I am asking you to look at the issues here in Dubois County that affect us all. Do we want to sacrifice our agricultural land, our water supply, our access to the natural environment that sustains us all, our right to privacy and our individual liberty to the relentless development they call progress? Do we want to deny our basic humanity in dealing with those people in our communities who are least able to protect themselves? Do we want freedom of the press, of our schools, of our libraries, those we trust to give us the information we most need? Do we want representatives who represent us and not the leaders of their party?

These are the questions behind the decisions we will make at the polls. We are not thriving, and we can do better. It’s time to challenge one-party rule and maintain our 250-year-old democracy.

Sincerely,

Julie Melchior
Ferdinand, Ind.