America used to be the envy of the world because of our unwavering commitment to the ideals and practice of democracy. We used to be able to boast that ours is truly a representative form of government. But that boast is no longer credible. That’s because, over the past 20 years, the two-party system has fomented and overseen an unparalleled level of voter suppression.
On the national level, both the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have been guilty of skullduggery, especially when it comes to dictating the rules involving Presidential primaries. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was so threatened by the popularity of Bernie Sanders that she stood by as her buddy, DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, conspired to damage Sanders’ candidacy at every turn.
Leaked emails showed, for example, that the DNC planned to use Bernie’s religion against him in the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries. Schultz also kept in place the Super Delegate system, which Sanders opposed because party hacks could commit to Clinton early on and run up the delegate count.
The RNC is also not above dirty politics either. Just last week it was revealed that the committee secretly drafted a resolution declaring Donald Trump the presumptive nominee after just one primary had occurred. The resolution was withdrawn after it became public knowledge. Meanwhile, the GOP has protected and sustained its own winner-take-all primary system in 20 key states. That makes for a less competitive field and often knocks legitimate challengers out of the race early.
Then there’s the problem of closed primaries. In states with a closed primary, registered Republicans can only vote in the Republican primary, and the same with registered Democrats. In those states, even folks registered as “unaffiliated” aren’t allowed to participate. According to a Lee Enterprises poll, in 2022 among nine states with closed or partially closed Congressional primaries, two in five registered voters in districts where there was a contested race, were barred from casting a ballot. In fact, people were not allowed to choose their own representative in one of every three Congressional districts.
Jeremy Gruber, an attorney for the group Open Primaries which is lobbying to require every state to hold open primaries, told Lee Newspapers, “We’ve allowed the two major political parties to control the process that our tax dollars pay for, and it’s perverted our democracy in all kinds of ways.”
States whose legislatures are controlled by Republicans are especially guilty of perverting our democracy as they seek to suppress the votes of Democrats in general and those in urban areas in particular. Nowhere is that truer than here in North Carolina where the GOP’s most recently drawn gerrymandered Congressional district maps are disenfranchising millions of voters from choosing their own representative.
Here, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, yet in this year’s election, the GOP map will most likely produce a Congressional delegation comprised of 11 Republicans and three Democrats, instead of our current seven and seven. One casualty of gerrymandering is veteran Democratic Congressperson Kathy Manning who decided not to seek re-election after studying the new district boundaries. The 6th district now heavily favors Republican candidates, which is why whoever wins the six-person primary on March 5 will, by default, become our new “representative,” and I use the term loosely.
If we are ever to restore our once great Democratic form of government, then three things have to happen. First, Congress (or the Courts) must require that every state hold open primaries. Second, all primaries must allocate delegates to every candidate according to the votes cast. And third, each state must be required to have in place a truly bi-partisan committee to create Congressional districts that reflect the population. Otherwise for many of us, the concept of “one man, one vote,” is just that — a concept, and not a reality.
January 23, 2024 @ 5:38 pm
Rigged Elections
America used to be the envy of the world because of our unwavering commitment to the ideals and practice of democracy. We used to be able to boast that ours is truly a representative form of government. But that boast is no longer credible. That’s because, over the past 20 years, the two-party system has fomented and overseen an unparalleled level of voter suppression.
On the national level, both the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have been guilty of skullduggery, especially when it comes to dictating the rules involving Presidential primaries. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was so threatened by the popularity of Bernie Sanders that she stood by as her buddy, DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, conspired to damage Sanders’ candidacy at every turn.
Leaked emails showed, for example, that the DNC planned to use Bernie’s religion against him in the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries. Schultz also kept in place the Super Delegate system, which Sanders opposed because party hacks could commit to Clinton early on and run up the delegate count.
The RNC is also not above dirty politics either. Just last week it was revealed that the committee secretly drafted a resolution declaring Donald Trump the presumptive nominee after just one primary had occurred. The resolution was withdrawn after it became public knowledge. Meanwhile, the GOP has protected and sustained its own winner-take-all primary system in 20 key states. That makes for a less competitive field and often knocks legitimate challengers out of the race early.
Then there’s the problem of closed primaries. In states with a closed primary, registered Republicans can only vote in the Republican primary, and the same with registered Democrats. In those states, even folks registered as “unaffiliated” aren’t allowed to participate. According to a Lee Enterprises poll, in 2022 among nine states with closed or partially closed Congressional primaries, two in five registered voters in districts where there was a contested race, were barred from casting a ballot. In fact, people were not allowed to choose their own representative in one of every three Congressional districts.
Jeremy Gruber, an attorney for the group Open Primaries which is lobbying to require every state to hold open primaries, told Lee Newspapers, “We’ve allowed the two major political parties to control the process that our tax dollars pay for, and it’s perverted our democracy in all kinds of ways.”
States whose legislatures are controlled by Republicans are especially guilty of perverting our democracy as they seek to suppress the votes of Democrats in general and those in urban areas in particular. Nowhere is that truer than here in North Carolina where the GOP’s most recently drawn gerrymandered Congressional district maps are disenfranchising millions of voters from choosing their own representative.
Here, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, yet in this year’s election, the GOP map will most likely produce a Congressional delegation comprised of 11 Republicans and three Democrats, instead of our current seven and seven. One casualty of gerrymandering is veteran Democratic Congressperson Kathy Manning who decided not to seek re-election after studying the new district boundaries. The 6th district now heavily favors Republican candidates, which is why whoever wins the six-person primary on March 5 will, by default, become our new “representative,” and I use the term loosely.
If we are ever to restore our once great Democratic form of government, then three things have to happen. First, Congress (or the Courts) must require that every state hold open primaries. Second, all primaries must allocate delegates to every candidate according to the votes cast. And third, each state must be required to have in place a truly bi-partisan committee to create Congressional districts that reflect the population. Otherwise for many of us, the concept of “one man, one vote,” is just that — a concept, and not a reality.