Letter to the editor – Calling for a new democratic network

To the editor,

Having democratic ways, but an autocrat in charge is not new in American history. How did Americans deal with that?

Before fighting broke out in the American Revolution, the people of Massachusetts formed a network of citizen “Committees of Correspondence” which united individual towns into a large, resourceful, coordinated and willing unity.  Exactly 250 years ago, the resolutions that were adopted by their Town Meetings, led to actions that had isolated the Governor, his troops, and his loyalists in Boston, while citizens reigned democratically everywhere else.

To protect against injustice and chaos as promised by the President-Elect, and to repair cumulative damage and neglect by our political parties, a new democratic network of small committees could propose and vote on measures to be taken up by legislators, and then press them to oblige our wishes.  The network would be open to residents who heed a code of complete mutual respect, allow each person 5 minutes to present a proposal, or for some other purpose, at an hour-long weekly meeting of their circle, and share with a couple other circles any proposal that gains majority approval; which in turn they consider, vote on, and share accordingly, and so on.  Many proposals will die out, but one that makes the rounds of a district would be taken up by an ad-hoc district committee, which would present it to the legislator and then follow up in many ways, such as reporting to the public how the representative responded to the district’s proposal. In this way we can support legislators who support the agenda that develops in the network, and undermine those who don’t.

Many related activities are possible. For instance, a second network, overlapping the first but run separately, could seek out good candidates for the various offices we elect, whittle the lists down to one per office by a series of Ranked Choice Votes, and get them on the ballot.

-Tim Lillard, Newfield