The thinking is that “election night 2017 was a fantastic
night for the Democratic Party,” [1]
and it is hard to disagree. As Vox
reports,
“First off, the party won convincing victories in the two
marquee governor’s races. In Virginia, Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam (D)
quieted pundits by defeating GOP operative Ed Gillespie. And in New Jersey,
financier Phil Murphy defeated Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor Kim
Guadagno to retake the governor’s mansion for Democrats.
But the good news for the party didn’t end there. In
Virginia, Democrats also won sweeping victories downballot, particularly in the
state’s House of Delegates — including in races that weren’t even on the radar
of most electoral analysts. All sorts of Democrats picked up seats there, from
conventional establishment times to a democratic socialist to the first openly
transgender person to win a state legislative seat in the United States. The
Republican brand was simply toxic.”
Well, perhaps, Vox
is a tad elated, but no one can seriously claim that the Republicans had a good
night. Hopes are high for an even better Democratic showing next year, perhaps
retaking either or both houses of Congress.
That could happen. But if it does, those as old as your
humble servant are ready for the disappointment to ensure. We’ve seen this
movie before.
This time, many will think, this time we will finally get
what we want out of government. But we never do get it. It’s as if the
politicians in both parties didn’t actually give a rip about what the majority
of Americans want. What we do about it is put the other party in power. We
replace Democrats with Republicans, which we replace with Democrats, and so on.
It really should go without saying that we should remove
money from politics, but there is something else we need to get rid of as well:
political parties. Political parties are the creatures that compel our
representatives to abandon the interests of their constituents in order to
serve party interests. Members of Congress end up representing their political
party rather than the states or districts they were elected to represent.
But how can we get rid of them? Don’t people have a
constitutional right to associate with one another for political purposes?
Of course they do. But they do not have a right to
government help in furthering what they perceive to be their mission. They
don’t have a right to privileged ballot access, and they don’t have a right to
have states run and fund their primaries for them. Even if we can’t forbid
party members from associating with each other, we can certainly control how
much they influence elections and legislatures. Here are some ideas:
1. Enact a law that party nominations will no longer give
access to the ballot, instead requiring that every candidate for office obtain
a certain number of nominating signatures on a petition;
2. Do not permit party affiliations to be mentioned on
ballots;
3. Do not permit party funding of candidates or campaigns;
4. In legislatures, and in Congress, provide that any
legislation moved and seconded by any member receive an up or down vote;
5. Make primaries open, indeed, make primaries for every
office non-partisan, with the two candidates who receive the most votes run
against each other in the general election, again without reference to party,
and
6. Presidential elections could be handled in the same
manner, with a nationwide primary held at the same time, but using electoral
votes, the two top candidates, again, running against each other in the general
election.
It is not being suggested here that these remedies will
bring about Utopia. But it will help to save us from the groupthink that only
money can buy. Of course, making it so that money is no longer able to buy such
things, and providing for public financing of campaigns, will also be a
necessary step.
