Why this Massachusetts independent is traveling for Troy | Opinion
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Charlie Welch of Northampton, Massachusetts, holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard College and an MBA in finance and economics from New York University. He runs a real estate agency.
I have never before spent my time on politics, yet in addition to canvassing for Troy Jackson, I phone bank for him three nights a week and I will be in Maine on Election Day to serve as a poll observer.
On Saturdays, I phone bank for Roy Cooper, the Democratic Senate candidate in North Carolina. I have donated money to the campaigns of Chris Pappas in New Hampshire and of Cait Conley in New York, both Democratic candidates running to flip or defend a seat in Congress. This is a radical departure for me, a person who has had no political party affiliation and has rarely voted outside of presidential elections.
It’s clear to me that this election is different. In this midterm election, our democracy is on the line. This is a crisis that demands the attention of every voter in this country and transcends our state borders and party affiliations.
In this election, we have two choices. We can endorse one man’s progress in dismantling our democratic form of government or we can defy it and reaffirm our commitment to the principles upon which this nation was founded 250 years ago.
We are immersed in a war with Iran of great consequences, including a higher cost of living and a world economy thrown into turmoil. Far graver is the estimated deaths of more than 9,000 people, including more than 1,700 civilians. More deaths will come as the war lumbers on with no end in sight. Although our nation chose this war, and our nation will inherit its legacy, whose war is it? Our Congress has never approved or supported it, yet we started it and are in it, based on the decision of one man.
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Without congressional approval, our current president is feverishly remaking our nation’s capital to his liking. In addition to tearing down the East Wing of our White House and constructing a monstrous addition that will be nearly twice the size of the White House itself, he has begun site work for an arch that will be more than twice the height of our Lincoln Memorial.
He threatens to tear down our Kennedy Center unless he is allowed to put his name on it. Past presidents resisted having their names put on government projects while in office. Our current president insists on it.
He has weaponized our government agencies against us. The examples of this are many, but one of the most outrageous is the arrest of an Olympic athlete to deflect the blame for a botched paint job on our Reflecting Pool.
Recently, he has attacked our free press by banning three media outlets from the White House because he considers their news coverage too negative. He is currently running taxpayer-funded ads that are unequivocally intended to sway voters before the midterm elections, a brazen and illegal use of taxpayer money for partisan propaganda and self-aggrandizement.
Prior to 2024, any one of these events would have set off alarms warning us that the guardrails of our democracy had been breached, but overwhelmed by the sheer volume of abuses and so immersed in the bitter partisanship incited by this man, we have hardly noticed that we have surrendered a large portion of our democracy to him, and what remains is rapidly slipping through our fingers.
On Jan. 6, 2021, the ultimate assault on our democratic form of government took place. Never in our nation’s history has there been a violent attempt to overturn the results of a presidential election. Our current president reaffirmed his disdain for our democracy by pardoning over 1,500 people involved in this attack on our nation’s capital.
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Mindful of these events, his relentless attempts to influence our upcoming midterm elections are ominous. The peaceful transfer of power is the very soul of any democracy. Without it there is no democracy.
For the time being, we are all able to vote and our votes are meaningful. The vote you cast on Nov. 3 will be more meaningful than any midterm vote cast in our nation’s history.
We all have our beliefs and our priorities. On Nov. 3, I implore you to be clear on what you are prioritizing, what you are endorsing. Your vote will either encourage the slide of our government into the clutches of a man fond of posting pictures of himself as a king, even a god, or it will defy it.
Our nation has faced and defeated great threats before, and regardless of the outcome of this election, we will do it again. But this Nov. 3 is crucial. Without a Democratic victory, the road back to our democracy will be much longer and more arduous.
Despite the distorted image of American greatness that has been peddled to us in recent years, there is only thing that makes our nation great and that is that our founders introduced to this world a revolutionary form of government, a form of government that we have defended for more than 250 years with our blood and our treasure, a government through which the people themselves guide their destiny, instead of a monarch or a king.
It is our unwavering commitment to that democracy that makes us great. Without it, we are ordinary, at best.
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Indeed, I am urging you to vote for the Democratic Party in this election, but please do not make the mistake of thinking that I am merely a Democrat in disguise. As an independent, I have voted with both parties. Currently both parties share some of my views; neither of them share all.
I am well aware that a Democratic victory in November will not cure our wounded democracy, but it will stem the bleeding and keep it alive.
For that, I’m willing to drive a lot longer than three hours.
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Tagged: columns, election 2026, senate 2026
