Time for Non-Partisan Elections - Democrats

 

An open letter to Oregon’s Democrat 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.  They cannot take Oregon’s Republican Party leadership seriously any longer and should not support this or any political party with their membership. 

Democrats should not feel thrilled about this.  There are many Democrats who have their own problems with the choices of their party, and more people than in either party who are so disgusted with the two major parties that they refuse to join either one.  A legislative supermajority invites extreme legislation that gets many people to vote against the party in power.

Donald Trump has caused a lot of problems for our nation and made others worse in the 4 years he was in office, by exacerbating partisan divisions in this country.  Many problems are still with us, not just nationally, but locally.  He has spawned a lot of mini-Trumps who will follow him slavishly, whether he can run again or not.

He never could have become President without the nomination of the Republican Party in our two-party system, with Hilary Clinton to run against.  The two parties managed to pick the two least popular candidates who stepped up to run.

            It is time for all-non-partisan elections in Oregon.  Please 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 has become increasingly partisan, making politics increasingly extreme and 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 primary 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 12th 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 and Vice President are supposed to be elected separately and they should run separately.   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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