I’m an ordinary guy. Until this week, I’ve never been particularly engaged politically, and certainly never joined a party. I preferred to trust that our centuries-old political traditions would see us right without much input from people like me, who could have our say every few years and otherwise get on with our lives. That belief has been demolished this week.

A confession: I have voted in all five general elections since I turned 18, as well as this referendum, and have never cast my vote for the winning side – either in the constituency or the country.

You might think, especially after last Friday’s result, that I would be thoroughly sick of democracy. Not at all – I’m a big believer in democracy. And although the leave campaign was riddled with misleading claims and outright lies, it’s clear that we can’t just ignore the result and then expect to claim any kind of legitimacy in future.

Over the past few days we’ve heard arguments that the referendum was advisory, that only an act of parliament carries the sovereign power to invoke article 50. But it wasn’t fought on those terms, and to disenfranchise the 17 million people who voted leave would be a huge mistake.

The referendum was an abuse of democracy, with David Cameron using a nationwide vote to settle internal party politics. His attempt to boil down an incredibly complex issue to a simple yes/no answer, while abdicating responsibility for making that decision, has been disastrous. So how do you right an abuse of democracy? With more democracy.

A general election trumps an advisory referendum, hands down. If you want to reverse this result, the only way to do it with any legitimacy is to win a general election on that basis.

You’d have a good chance too: the leave campaign won’t be able to use the same lies twice, not after the whole thing has unravelled in the days – and in some cases hours – after the result was announced.

The Brexit leaders need the mandate delivered by a general election win. After a narrow victory in a referendum that they didn’t really expect to win, they can’t claim to speak for the country in their negotiations with the EU.

I’ve found myself energised by the issues raised by the recent events and the discussions we’ve all been having around them. So much so that I decided to join a political party to help fight its corner. So, whom to support? Clearly, the Conservatives are going to have to choose a Brexit-inclined leader, or tear themselves apart – so I won’t find my home there.

Labour is in complete disarray – Jeremy Corbyn seems to be a decent, principled man, but one whose history of following his own path makes him unsuited to leading a mainstream party. The tension between the parliamentary party and its members isn’t going to be resolved soon. In addition, Labour’s heartland delivered the leave vote, so the party will have its own problems in making a coherent case to remain in the EU.

The Liberal Democrats seem to be the answer. Yes, they took a kicking at the last general election, dropping from 57 MPs to just eight. But 2.5 million people still voted for them. They have 300,000 votes a seat, so their Westminster representation hides their true strength. They have a party machinery that is not in opposition with itself. And they are publicly in favour of fighting the next general election from the position of remain.

So, along with 7,500 other people in the last four days, I have joined up. Because if joining a political party is a deeply unfashionable thing to do, you might as well join the least fashionable one. And I’m really looking forward to helping it fight for Britain’s future in the EU over the coming months.