Primaries: Why Moderates Can't Win

Political parties have been around as long as politics. Where there is more than one opinion, there will be more than one group. As opinions have hardened and formalized, so have the groups. Hence, our modern day political parties.

Now, the United States, it seems, has always favored simplicity. The system it takes, direct election, means that we vote for a particular person rather than a particular party. While I like that, as we vote for a real person and can pick and choose, it unfortunately favors bicameral systems (For the Lemmings, "Bicameral" means "Two parties").

In case you’re interested in the other main system, the Parliamentary system, that works by you voting for a particular party, not a person. The votes are tallied, and the party gets a number of seats on parliament equal to the percentage of votes received. This has the disadvantage in that the party chooses the individuals that actually sit in Parliament, but has the decided advantage in that it's multilateral, and even the smallest party usually can win at least one seat, thereby representing their specific opinion.

In our system, we get to chose the individual. But the bicameral system favors extremes, not specifics. It is very sad to watch our politics devolve into "You suck!" "No, YOU suck!" "No, YOU suck" "No…" ad nauseam.

Now, of course, when you get extremists in politics, it gets ugly fast. The line gets drawn in the sand even on issues where compromise is possible. And when you consider someone "the Enemy" long enough, hell breaks loose even on issues that they should agree on for the betterment of the society they’re supposed to be governing.

In my point of view, the single biggest problem that keeps cooler-headed moderates out of the election process is the Primary Elections.

Since it is ideal for a candidate to have a majority win, each party cannot just field as many candidates as possible for the General Election. So Primaries are held to find out who they are going to put on the November ballot. Everyone from a particular party who has put their name into the hat runs against their fellows, and the victor moves on to the General. Now, this is all good and reasonable, as it knocks a dozen people from the parties down to a more manageable two or three (depending on if an independent or third party candidate managed to jump through the added hoops they have to go through…).

Now, this is pretty straightforward… So what is the problem? Well, the voters in the primaries are obviously limited to voting for the people from their own party. This gets sticky, because the people from the party aren't going to think "Who appeals to me while at the same time appeals to our political opponents? Who could bridge the gap?" They typically think "Who best represents the extreme ideologies of my party?" So when it comes down to the General Election there are no moderates, and it just turns into a vicious battle of Red versus Blue. Like a two player video game, only with less cool action hero characters, and more old guys.

This is problematic. A nasty chain reaction sets in. Without moderates, no common ground is sought. With no common ground, very little gets done. And when very little gets done… Well, the citizenry gets turned off, and they view their governmental representatives as self-interested goons our for their party rather than the people as a whole. Which is ironically accurate, because they typically ARE self-interested goons out for the party interest rather than the public good!

And self-interested goons are never a good thing for a Republic!

Of course, how do we solve this? Well, demanding to lessen the restrictions on third party candidates would be an excellent start. With more players on the field, there is a better chance of a "Good guy" getting elected for a change.

Also, a massive realignment of thought in that a person's vote HAS to be for a Republican or a Democrat. There has always been the tendency for Two Parties in our system, but they haven't always been Republicans or Democrats. Ironically, the original Big Two weren't even Republicans or Democrats! Our major parties were upstart third parties once upon a time. And even if you looked at the "Original" Reps and Dems, you wouldn't recognize them. Their goals have shifted over time, and will likely continue to move around the board.

So: Lessen the hoops that independent and third party candidates have to jump to get on the ballot
And: Vote for third party candidates.

Unfortunatly, while this is a good start, it is not nearly enough!

So, I put forth KnightErrant's first open ended question:

What do you think, as average citizens, we could do to calm the rift in American politics, and how do we bring cooler headed moderates and alternative opinioned third parties into the mix?

If you have an answer, let me hear it! Short ones can be commented below, and go ahead and send bigger ones to modernknighterrant (AT) gmail.com .

Rock on, folks!