Mayor Tom Menino has invited 6,000 of his fellow democrats to Boston to pick a new presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention in July. 15,000 members of the press will follow them to the hub, and other components of the DNC entourage will bring the total “invasion” force to 35,000 people. If the U.S. electoral system encouraged candidates to bond with their constituents and know the problems they face, Bostonians would rightly be delighted to host such an event. As it is, the electoral system we have requires candidates to find simple, dumbed down, centrist messages that can appeal to large majorities instead of a platform that might have real substance and meaning for anyone. This majoritarian system serves to keep the diversity of voices that are extant in the United States out of the executive and legislative bodies of the government. Instead of party loyalists and dissenters alike enjoying an opportunity to talk to their representatives and candidates, the people of Boston are instead devising clever strategies that will allow them to breach the dividing walls, buffer zones, and police lines that will surround the Fleet Center and the delegates inside. One group, Boston’s DNC Coalition, has come up with a novel way to get their voices heard.

Pete Stid Boston, 2004

A number of local and national groups are organizing large demonstrations against the Democratic National Convention, yet many people are asking why. “Shouldn’t we be supporting anyone who can replace Bush?” they ask. Anti-authoritarians feel that protesting the DNC would effectively be a demand for better candidates, thus going against their message that any leader is illegitamate. Others seem to answer any political activism call with, “What the hell difference will it make?” In the same way that all of these statements show a divided and unorganized movement for change, they also show the potential for a unified movement, and a singular goal. An ideal “teaching moment” for a new direction towards direct democracy is presented to us all this July at the DNC. The message should be “change the system” not “regime change”. It is time to begin dismantling the centralization of power in the hands of the Republicans and the Democrats.