Paul Bartlett’s letter [Letters, October] regarding Peter Hutchinson, Independence Party candidate for governor, stinks of antidemocratic hypocrisy. I gather from the tone of the letter that votes not assigned to Republicans are automatically a bourgeois entitlement of Democrats.
Ralph Nader and Hutchinson are great Americans who are brave enough to wage uphill battles with conviction, which is something so-called progressives would understand were they not jaded by zero-sum politics.
I will be voting for Democrats in November, but I’m troubled by those of us who have neither the character nor the values to appreciate an open electoral process. Associating the worst motives with worthy third-party candidates who run with passion and integrity is exactly the type of imperiousness that sends voters out our left door.
If our values and positions are strong, as we believe they are, we can prevail without the censorious yelping against the right of citizens to exercise their constitutional rights in any way they see fit. Any member of a party called “Democratic” should need no primer on the rights of individuals in a participatory system of government.
Chris Stewart, Minneapolis
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