(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Democracy Matters [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-10 (The following speech was delivered to the Democratic Women of Greenville County’s monthly dinner meeting, before President Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris stepped up.) My name is Stephen Dreyfus and I’m running for House Seat 20, using the campaign slogan, Democracy Matters. I shouldn’t be standing up here this evening. I am up here now because no other Democrat picked up the gauntlet to run against my Republican opponent. I ran for this office four years ago. I ran a great campaign, but I lost. Failing to raise enough money, I ended up spending far too much of my own. I don’t regret running, but concluded I just wasn’t wealthy enough to run for office again. In 2020, three other Democrats were considering running for House Seat 20. This year, there were none. So I literally waited until the eleventh hour before registering to run as a Democrat, as no one else was willing to do so. Or so I thought. When I arrived at the electoral commission, my cell phone rang. It was Hugh Owens my campaign manager. He told me that earlier that day, a DINO, a Democrat In Name Only, who didn’t support Biden, decided to run as a Democrat for House Seat 20 as there was already too many candidates in the Republican Primary. By pretending to be Democrat, he hoped to get to the electoral finals without participating in a Republican primary. As it turned out, the DINO was disqualified from being a candidate as he had a criminal record. No candidate with a serious criminal record should ever be allowed to run for office! But there is something just as bad as a Republican running as a Democrat. And that is no Democrat running at all. Every race, regardless of the odds of winning, should provide a Democratic candidate for voters to choose. I decided to run because I believe Democracy matters. Democracy provides the foundation of our government, and preserving our democracy should be beyond debate or discussion. It is an axiom that people should choose those in power, rather than those in power should rule over the people. Although Democracy is fraught with myriad difficulties, any other form of government is far worse. And just what are the alternatives? Anarchy, and rule by lawless gangs and the force of guns. Authoritarian dictatorship where the head of state is above and beyond the law; who can perpetrate any atrocity or injustice; and can rig the system to stay in power indefinitely. America didn’t want a king—even if George Washington were the king. Our basic freedoms, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to assemble, and the right to have autonomy over our own bodies—all of these have no chance of surviving, if democracy doesn’t survive. The binary choice is either violence or voting. It should be a no-brainer than voting is preferable, but too many Republicans, have no brains. They are so hopelessly enthralled with cult of Trump, they would prefer he become dictator with absolute power, rather than have elections which determine a winner. Many Republicans are willing to jettison Democracy for fear that in the near future minority groups will make white Americans less than half of the population. Make no mistake, when Trump says Make America Great Again, he’s really saying Make America White Again. Republicans like to argue we are a republic, not a democracy. They like the word Republic because it is in the word Republican. They dislike the word democracy because it sounds too much like the word Democrat. So what is the difference between democracy and a republic? There isn’t a hill of beans worth of difference! Both words mean virtually the same thing. Get rid of democracy, and the republic falls. Other previously democratic countries lost their democracy and succumbed to dictatorship. And make no mistake, it can happen here. If Trump becomes president, the death of democracy in America will be imminent. Once gone, Democracy rarely comes back. But for Democracy to thrive, we need to do more than defeat Trump and Trumpism. We need to work to protect and improve Democracy. There are several specific things we can do to improve our Democracy and voting. We need to abolish the Electoral College so every citizen, regardless of where he lives, has one vote equal to every other citizen. The Electoral College is a dangerous anachronism, a deeply-flawed compromise, which wrongly gave us the worst president in US history, Donald Trump. But you already know that. We need to protect everyone’s right to vote and end voter suppression. But you already know that. We need to get big money out of politics and eliminate Citizens United so ultra-rich billionaires and corporations can’t buy elections. But you already know that. We need to eliminate gerrymandering once and for all. The voters should pick the politicians; the politicians shouldn’t pick their voters. But you already know that too. We need to make voting easier for everyone , such as turning Election Day into a national holiday. But you know that, too. But what you might not know is that our system for voting, called plurality voting, is the worst possible system of voting. Plurality voting, where each voter only gets to vote for one candidate, works fine—providing there are two, and only two candidates. But when there are more than two in the race, as frequently occurs in many elections, the electoral outcome can become terribly wrong, undemocratic, and unfair. Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016. But you already know that. But what most people don’t know, is that even with the Electoral College in place, Al Gore would have beaten George Bush, if only we had a better voting system. Hillary Clinton would have defeated Donald Trump if only we had a better voting system. Various improved voting systems have been proposed over many years. Each of them is far better than our present system, and far less dangerous. Although none of them is perfect, some of these systems are better than others. Two of the very best, are Approval Voting and Range Voting. Yet there is another voting system I believe is even better, as it combines the best features of Approval Voting with the best features of Range Voting. This system, called Three-Option Voting, allows the voter to designate her first choice, second choice, and last choice. Three Option Voting, as well as the other systems, prevent the complex dangers of third-party candidates spoiling the election. Today, the Republican Party is trapped within the thralls of a dangerous, demagogic, dictatorial, lying megalomaniac who spews hatred and racism. Trump is unable to lead the country. He can only divide and destroy us. The question is this: How can the Republican Party die a natural death, unless we can safely allow an alternative third party to take its place? The answer is simple: By replacing our present system with Three Option Voting, or one of the other voting systems, we can safely assure the integrity of our elections without denying the most democratic choice. God willing, we will win in November, but when we do, it will be no time to rest on our laurels. Then it will be time to protect and improve our democracy. Democracy matters. 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