Letters to the Editor: The DNC protests show the folly of our two-party system

To the editor: The march on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago unintentionally highlights the need to move beyond a polarizing two-party system. This might be achieved through reforming our voting system, and seems it would be a central issue to social justice activists.

I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering if withholding support for the Democratic nominee, as some pro-Palestine supporters promise, is really something that would help Palestinians or any other marginalized people.

Therein lies the folly of our two-party system.

A fundamental issue for activists today is to transform the way we elect our officials to move beyond our “first past the post” system. In an Al Jazeera opinion piece last January, journalist Christian Rhodes noted that for the first half of the 20th century, many cities used a single transferable voting system, but this was discontinued “largely because of hostility to racial and ethnic minorities benefitting from the system.”

Voter reform is a powerful way to think globally and act locally.

Here’s to freedom and peace for Palestinians — and all whose freedom is withered by our country’s two-party system.

Deborah Perticara, La Grange Park, Ill.

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To the editor: Where were all these pro-Palestinian protesters during the Republican National Convention last month?

Trump and the Republicans have been full-throated supporters of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for years. It was two Republican speakers of the House, Reps. John Boehner (Ohio) and Mike Johnson (Louisiana), who invited Netanyahu to speak before Congress.

Netanyahu and his minions deserve to be denounced in the most emphatic terms.

So why are the organizers only protesting at the DNC? Are Democrats an easier target than the Republicans? Or is there something to this of which we are not aware?

Martin Parker, Thousand Oaks