This year, 2022, is a fourth of July like no other in living history. As we are learning, we live in a Republic that barely survived a coup attempt, and under oppressive courts and legislatures that are relentlessly taking away rights and civil liberties rather than protecting them.

So, this year I decided to read the whole Declaration of Independence. I have a copy of the handwritten document. What struck me was how similar the grievances the Founders had with King George are to what we are experiencing today:

"He has refused to assent to laws most wholesome and necessary for the common good." The Supreme Court has just forbidden the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses, absolutely essential for the common good;

"He has refused to pass laws for the accomodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only." How is this different from the ruthless gerrymandering by the Republicans that has created a situation where the will of the majority is ignored and we are governed by an obnoxious minority?

"For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally our form of government..." The Voting Rights Act has been under constant attack, and the Clarence Thomas Court has signalled its demise is near. Trump tried to change the balance of power fundamentally by allowing the Executive Branch to overturn the will of the people in the presidential election. Voting rights, environmental protections, the right to assemble for protests, womens' rights, all are falling at the hands of the conservative Republicans who are altering fundamentally our form of government.

As a Green, I have felt the weight of the oppressive "two" Party system. Republicans and Democrats around the country have cooperated to eliminate the Green Party in almost every state by passing restrictive laws that make it almost impossible to stay on the ballot. Somehow when they are in the minority, Democrats can't stop Republicans from doing bad things. But when they are in the majority, Democrats are stopped from doing good things by the Republicans. It's clear that just electing Democrats is not enough.

It's also clear that the two party "system" of government is a failure. There's too much collusion, too much cowardice, the billionaires rather than the People control both Parties. The primary system ensures that, with only two parties, only the most irrational and extreme candidates will be elected by the tiniest slices of the population that are most highly motivated by their extremism to turn out to vote for them. Only when there is actual competition with more than two Parties, will politicans listen to the will of the People and not the billionaires. In a multi-party democracy, there are too many players for all of them to be controlled at once. Actual competition leads to better outcomes for the people. We need to get back to Grassroots Democracy, and that's what the Greens stand for.