A lot of the people I’ve talked to recently have said that they don’t feel represented by either the Republicans or the Democrats. Maybe they’re pro-choice but they also support tax cuts. Or perhaps they support a hawkish foreign policy but they also want gays to have the right to marry. In today’s fractured political climate, it’s tough to be a moderate. The parties are becoming more extreme. Interestingly enough, there is actually a simple way to change that, a way to make the political parties more diverse and representative of the people. This solution may seem counter intuitive, but bear with me. In order to make our political parties better, we need to get rid of primaries as we know them.
The primary elections were introduced during the progressive movement as a way to increase popular participation in the election. Before primaries, candidates were endorsed by a party without direct voter impact. At the time, the primaries were a great thing. They allowed average citizens to have a say in party politics, even if they weren’t important party members. But times have changed. Closed partisan primaries simply don’t accomplish what they were supposed to do. Instead of allowing the best candidates to rise to the top, it is the candidates that appeal to the base that win. And when extreme voters are the majority of the primary participants, it isn’t surprising that extreme candidates win.
When primaries are limited to one party, you end up with the base of the party voting. For Republicans, these are solid conservative voters, and for Democrats, they’re solid liberals. The candidates they choose are, unsurprisingly, solid conservatives or solid liberals. These candidates satisfy the base, but a general election isn’t just about the base. If neither candidate appeals to independents, then independent voters will either hold their nose when they vote, or just not vote at all, which really isn’t a desirable outcome.
Well, you might ask, what do we do about this? What we need to do is get rid of closed primaries and instead have two general rounds of voting where everyone can vote both times. In the first round, anyone who can get enough signatures can run. The top two vote getters would move on to a general election. Often, this would result in one Republican and one Democrat. Sometimes, in a very liberal district, two more liberal candidates would face off, or vice versa in very conservative districts. But because everyone can vote, you wouldn’t be getting the same extreme candidates. The Sharron Angles and Christine O’Donnells of the world would not get past the first round of voting.
This system would actually give independent candidates a chance, because independent voters would have just as much say as registered party members. The candidates would represent a more diverse set of opinions, which fuels discourse. No longer would we have two extreme groups of elected officials. Civil discussion is always better than partisan rancor. Eliminating the closed primary system is the easiest way to ensure a more representative and fair government
Great article. I am a national coordinator for Independentvoting.org, the national organizing and strategy center for the independent movement. Open primaries, as you point out, is critical not only for independents (the system you advocate is called Top-two – – the voters just voted it up in California) but in order to change political culture for all. Most independents are independent because they don’t want to belong to a party, don’t like how partisanship has gotten in the way of progress (not to mention made politics a blood sport) and want to vote for the candidate of their choice. We, at Independentvoting.org, are working to give voice to independents who now number about 40% of voters, and we advocate structural political reforms, like open primaries, non-partisan elections and redistricting, appointment of independents to election boards, same day voter registration, etc. which would increase the power of independents and decrease the power of the parties. Check out the website (also Openprimaries.org) and if you’re interested please feel free to email me gmandell@independentvoting.org or sign up for email updates.