Roll up your sleeves, citizens

Another moderate voice, Evan Bayh, is leaving the U.S. Senate, complaining that the atmosphere is poisoned by partisanship, and we shake our heads in disgust. How, we ask, are “they” going to solve this problem?

“They” aren’t. It’s up to us, the voters, to find, promote and elect broad-minded, pragmatic politicians. But how do we do that when extremists have control of both major parties and refuse to draft moderate platforms? And how are our moderate candidates going to survive a system of primary elections where they have to declare loyalty to the party platform, and only the “wing nuts” from each party cast ballots? How are we going to combat a Supreme Court that equates money with free speech and grants full personhood to corporations?

Maybe we need a strong third party. (Oh, please don’t say Tea Party). Looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us. Better get started.

Michael Nelson

Spokane