Time for Non-Partisan Elections - Republicans

 An open letter to Oregon’s Republican Caucus

            Oregon’s 23 Republican state Representatives have signed a statement castigating state Republican Party officials for passing a resolution condemning Congressional Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump and calling the attack on our federal Capitol Buildings a “false flag” operation.  You cannot take Oregon’s Republican Party leadership seriously any longer and should not support this or any political party with your membership.  

            It is time for all-non-partisan elections in Oregon.  Write a constitutional amendment to no longer allow party nominations and to take all party labels off all ballots for any office, from President on down.  Allow only the top two candidates from primary elections to move on to the general election.

            Our present system allows parties to choose candidates to our general election ballot before one is chosen by the whole electorate.  This means that the first loyalty of any party candidate is to their party, not to all electors. 

A nation divided by parties becomes increasingly partisan, making politics increasingly poisonous.  Meanwhile, membership in the two major parties that choose nearly all elected candidates has shrunk to less than 2/3 of the electorate.

            Including Presidential elections would make any candidate for President come to Oregon and campaign in our primary if they want a chance to be on our fall ballot, no matter how late we hold our primary election.  As it is now, the two major parties usually make their choices before Oregon voters even get to vote on candidates for President, with campaigns now starting two years before the election. 

The Electoral College would become what it was meant to be in the beginning, the only chance for the whole electorate to elect majority candidates for President and Vice President.  In the Twelfth Amendment, if there is no majority for any candidate in the College, the House chooses the President from up to three of the candidates with the highest numbers, one vote per delegation, and the Senate chooses the Vice President from two candidates with the highest numbers for Vice President, one vote per Senator.  The President would thereby not choose his successor in case of impeachment, disability or death, making him more careful.

            As other states become non-partisan, their Congressional Representatives and Senators would no longer shield a President from impeachment and would judge legislation on its merits and overall popularity, not the support of their President, their party leadership or their party base.  Partisan elections short-circuit separation of powers by making politicians beholden to other politicians or their extremist party base instead of the whole of the electorate.

 

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 Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener        541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

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