[The following was written for the town listserv and is reposted here.]

I’m a member of the local selectboard but I don’t speak here for town government, nor could I. This is my opinion and I’m happy to discuss it with any of you. (Though I believe listserv rules prohibit personal heckling, so you might have to write me directly with your differing opinion.)

Consider this:

“Once they have your vote after perpetrating a genocide, they know there’s nothing you won’t allow them to do.”

I share the opinion. The thought was expressed yesterday by Anthony Zenkus, a professor at Columbia University.

I understand voting for harm reduction; of course I do. And yet. Both major parties knowing that everyone believes an alternative to the duopoly can never arise has caused the mess we’re in: where both options are horrific. The Dems’ VP candidate sent military to shut down protest of an oil pipeline in his state to ensure it happened. Kamala Harris literally laughed when someone recently brought up the thousands of black men she caused to remain incarcerated after they should have been released. Both of them place the protest of what is plainly an ethnic cleansing as more of a threat than the ethnic cleansing itself. And as we all know, “Project 2025” seeks to destroy as much government as possible and generally create a theocracy.

I will say: whatever we let the ruling class do elsewhere, they will bring home and try on us. It’s not an if but when. Police around the country already routinely train at the direction of the IDF.

We need a movement for ranked-choice voting to allow alternative parties to flourish, and we need it yesterday. That movement needs teeth. In this atmosphere, the only “teeth” our reps respect is people willing to tell them, and follow through on, this: “If you don’t cosponsor ranked-choice voting, I will not vote for you.”

One thing is clear. This threat is the only one they listen to.

If anyone in Hartford agrees and wants to join me to work on building this movement and perhaps some other things that must happen alongside it, let me know.