Presently, there are only two independent members of Congress in Washington, D.C., and both caucus with the Democrats. I suggest we need more who are truly independent.

Electing Val Hoyle or Monique DeSpain (middle-of the-road Democrat versus Republican) in Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District might not be our best bet. They will constitute just another vote the Democrats/Republicans can count on, just another vote for increased inequality; no reliable voice for ending corporate welfare, Citizens United, large military budgets, accelerating costs for utilities, food, gas, etc.

But if you vote for Justin Filip (Green/Progressive), you can elect a candidate who will promote the things the people care most about, someone neither Democrats nor Republicans can count on. As they vie to get his vote, our district, state and country will benefit. And the more independent or alternative party members of Congress are elected, the more power they will have.

In 1854, there was no Republican Party in America. Then the people, troubled by the Democratic dominance of Southern plantations and the Whig dominance of northern factories, built the party that Abraham Lincoln led to the presidency in 1860, and which has replaced the Whig Party as the second dominant party ever since.

From 1890 to 1902 the Populist Party, and from 1912 to 1920 the Progressive Party — in reaction to the Gilded Age dominance of corporate consolidation — elected modest numbers of candidates to Congress.

They promoted direct election of senators, the secret ballot, eight-hour workdays, referenda and ballot initiatives; women’s suffrage, labor union rights, child labor laws, farm relief, inheritance taxes, primary elections, recall of judicial decisions, public control of utilities, worker’s compensation insurance, financial regulation, campaign finance reform, registration of lobbyists, public congressional committee hearings.

Ideally an alternative party of the people could replace one of the parties of the rich. But even electing a few true independents to Congress could substantially influence policy. I stopped voting for candidates from the Democratic and Republican Parties in 2016 — it’s a boycott I hope many more will join.

Shouldn’t we stop doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? A vote for Justin Filip would make a good start.

Alan Cohen
Eugene