{news} Richard Duffee's letter in the Norwalk Hour

[David Bedell]

Richard's letter was published in the Norwalk Hour on Tuesday, Oct 28.  The same issue had his entry in the Hour's voter guide.

http://www.thehour.com/story/458313


	Governments cannot be run in secrecy; citizens must seek truth	
	
		
	
		
	
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Governments cannot be run in secrecy; citizens must seek truth
	To the Editor:



Asked on Sunday what planks of the Republican platform he disagreed
with, Christopher Shays replied that the platforms of the Democrats and
Republicans don't mean much. On Monday I asked him what he meant. He
replied that platforms are made up by a committee composed of the
representatives from each state and that they're not terribly important
in actual policy formation. 



This truthful statement indicates the most serious structural flaw of
our government. When citizens cannot trust that party platforms express
what party leaders actually intend to do, we have nothing better to
rely on for that knowledge. The Republicans and Democrats are telling
us to cast our votes on the basis of faith in them, not knowledge or
rationality. 



When we must vote on the basis of ignorance, we do not live in a functioning republic, but in an oligarchy. 



The policies the government will actually pursue under either major
party are fundamentally secrets among the party leaders. What they tell
us is merely what they think it convenient for us to hear. 



So long as we continue our imperial ambitions we must expect to be kept
in the dark. Republics require a modicum of honesty, tolerance, and
openness, while empires -- which are merely systems of slavery at a
distance -- must always be ruled by a mystifying and degrading
combination of secrecy, fraud, and violence. Any republic that attempts
to rule an empire deteriorates into rule by the greediest and cruelest.




If we do not reclaim our responsibilities as citizens, ever deeper forms of subjugation await us. 



Richard Duffee



Green Party Candidate for Congress, 4th district Ct. 



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