Time To Remove Parties From Voting
We make our primary election choices Saturday. But the political system is failing because of our stubborn insistence on by-the-party voting.
Political parties are not mentioned in the
Constitution. The writers felt they would be too divisive.
They are.
Each out-of-office party feels it has to savage the party in office – even if the latter is doing a good job.
Our primaries would be more attractive if we let people vote on a single ballot of all office seekers. The top two vote getters in each race, regardless of party, would face off in the general. We might get two Democrats or two Republicans or one of each.
Also, we have a host of bright people out there but only a few run. I remember the late Cec Heftel telling me what a bunch of dimwits occupied the U.S. House of Representatives – politicians from small places who did not understand much of the legislation or even read it before they voted on it.
We have some bright lights in our Legislature but many dim bulbs. I get mad because politicians are always more focused on re-election than grand vision. They poll and try to split the difference between what some want and others don’t, and hope to get half of each.
I yearn for leaders like Jim Madison, Tom Jefferson and John Adams, who set their eyes on the future and went for it. They didn’t have Ward Research telling them how Waipahu might vote. They understood persuasion. That’s lacking today.
