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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sidharth Ghoshal, Member of the Public, advocating for open primaries for a more inclusive government
3:14:46
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134 sec
Sidharth Ghoshal, a Queens resident, testifies passionately in favor of open primaries, invoking Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to argue for a government "of the people, by the people, for the people," not of parties.
He contends that open primaries would allow more voices, including minorities currently underrepresented in selecting Republican candidates, to participate and that it's a moral imperative for a more inclusive democracy. Ghoshal expresses gratitude that the commission is considering this issue.
- Argues for open primaries based on the principle of government representing all people, not just party members.
- Believes open primaries would allow currently excluded minorities to have a say in selecting candidates across different parties.
- Urges the commission to take the
Sidharth Ghoshal
3:14:46
Thank you.
3:14:47
Hi.
3:14:48
My name is Sidharth.
3:14:48
It's my first time coming to one of these.
3:14:50
Just a resident of Queens.
3:14:52
I live in Flushing.
3:14:54
So open primaries are something I'm kind of passionate about.
3:14:57
I think, like, we should have more freedom.
3:14:59
We should have the right to be able to just voice our opinions even if we aren't part of the correct team or whatever.
3:15:03
You know?
3:15:04
And so before I go into, like, any kind of factual thing, let me just, like, have a really quick appeal to emotion, if that's alright here.
3:15:11
So the year is 1863.
3:15:14
The battle of Gettysburg has just happened.
3:15:16
There's been a massive war.
3:15:17
And the union has just won, but, a lot of people are dead from both sides, so Lincoln has to give a speech.
3:15:22
And so Abraham Lincoln gives the following speech, and I'm gonna just take a quote out of it.
3:15:26
That these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
3:15:36
I wanna repeat one small part of that, if you don't mind.
3:15:39
Okay.
3:15:39
That government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
3:15:44
The fact of the matter is Lincoln was very careful not to say of the party, by the party, for the party.
3:15:49
He didn't say that.
3:15:50
He said for the people.
3:15:53
And so it goes without saying then that, like, if this is what the sentiment was, like, gosh, like, almost, what, two centuries ago or, like, a century and a half ago, that we probably should be having open primaries by this point.
3:16:05
Like, we should have people be able to just stand up and, like, you know, raise their voice.
3:16:09
Fact of the matter is the Republican party here is 75% white.
3:16:12
There's a bunch of people paid a lot of money to come testify today and say that, oh, we actually think the primary should stay closed.
3:16:18
Well, guess what?
3:16:19
Like, some of the arguments they make are that minorities don't get a chance to speak.
3:16:23
And if you had open primaries, suddenly a whole bunch of minorities would be able to get to pick the Republican candidate, which they don't currently get to pick right now.
3:16:30
And so the simple fact of the matter is that we really should be having open primaries.
3:16:34
We really should be creating a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
3:16:37
And I'm really, really happy that the commission is willing to consider this question today.
3:16:41
I only found out about this because I was trying to figure out, like, who you know, is anyone even considering this question?
3:16:46
And by some luck, 2025 happens to be the year that, you know, this becomes a major question.
3:16:50
And so I'm extremely grateful for that, and I just hope the commission does the right thing here.
3:16:54
I hope they make take the moral high ground.
3:16:56
They do the thing that's best, like, for our city.
3:16:59
That's kind of it.