Letter: Oppose oligarchy this election

Published 10:00 am Tuesday, October 27, 2020

To the Editor:

OK, folks, it is crunch time. This election cycle, the citizens of the U.S. will make their choice to either:

A. Give us at least a fighting chance to prove that voting matters, or

B. Send the grand American exercise in democracy into the dustbin of history.

Option B will prove Robert Michels’ theory that democracies have a tendency to turn into oligarchies. Oligarchy is a term meaning rule by the rich, relying on oppression to exist. Voting is meaningless. The approved candidate faces token opposition. Results are predetermined. 2020 would become the last time a citizen’s vote in this country mattered.

My father died in the gore of Omaha Beach fighting for option A. This option requires hard work, requiring citizens to study each candidate carefully before they vote. Democracy is hard, but our forefathers considered it valuable enough to die for.

I can only hope that our generation will not be remembered as the ones who sold a free country down the river for empty promises, no matter how “beautiful” they sounded.

If you choose B, it will likely be the last hard voting choice you will have to make. Oligarchs, directing whatever puppet they have installed, will relieve you of having to think. Your vote will be precounted before ballots are printed.

So please make the difficult choice to be remembered by the generations to come as my father is, among those willing to do the right thing, standing up to be counted as opposing oligarchy.

John Wolter

John Day