Election: Two-party system thwarts voters

Following the landslide caucus victory of Bernie Sanders in every county in the state, Washington Democrats called for our state’s superdelegates to follow the will of the people and cast their votes for Sanders as well.

It’s not going to happen. The Democratic Party controls these delegates, and the party wants Hillary Clinton to be the nominee.

As a delegate, I worked hard for Jerry Brown in 1992. The Brown campaign manager in our district was a superdelegate. But when he arrived at the national convention, he promptly cast his vote for Bill Clinton on the first ballot.

Every vote in Congress is always split along party lines. There really is no difference between the two. The unfortunate truth is that as long as these parties continue to exist, we will have gridlock, and the good of the people will take second place to the good of the party.

There is nothing in the Constitution that says two political parties shall dictate policy and have the power to elect our officials, but that is the reality. Those who would subvert our government need only appeal to these two entities. We need to break their stranglehold on our system by voting for independents.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Election: Two-party system thwarts voters."