The Importance Of Choosing Our Choices

If you want to understand one reason why politics is becoming increasingly partisan, look no farther than Tuesday.

That’s when both parties will hold their primaries, but a lot of voters won’t participate.

In May 2010, 29 percent of Arkansans voted in the primaries, compared to 48 percent in the general election. That year, 471,615 went to the polls in May while more than 1.1 million stayed home. Then in the general election, another 300,000 voted.

That’s the case every year. American elections are decided by two very different electorates - the relatively narrow one that chooses the parties’ candidates during primaries, and the broader, larger one that chooses between those candidates in November.

Who is in the fi rst electorate? Generally, those good people tend to be the most committed and conservative Republicans on one side and the most committed and liberal Democrats on the other, and thank goodness we have both. We want a political system where some people argue forcefully for less government and lower taxes while others passionately make the case for a social safety net. Otherwise, we would just have a big mushy middle where everybodygoes along to get along.

Naturally, those voters tend to choose very conservative Republicans and very liberal Democrats. The moderate candidates, the ones who look at each issue individually rather than follow the party line, the types who would be willing or maybe even too eager to reach across the aisle - they’re almost always getting beat in May these days.

So in November, if you are looking for someone like that, you’ll fi nd them standing to the side and wearing a brave face while they support the candidate that beat them six months earlier.

You could, of course, vote for a third-party candidate.

However, the two main ones, the Libertarians and the Greens, tend not to be extremely cooperationoriented either.

Partly as a result of primaries, Congress is as divided as any in my lifetime, and I was alive during Watergate. Most members are either very liberal Democrats or very conservative Republicans who don’t believe in fraternizing with the enemy and who justifi ably believe their base voters believe the same way.

Instead of a system with a strong center being nudged left and right by visionary conservatives like Ronald Reagan and visionary liberals like Dr. Martin Luther King, we have a bipolar system, heavily weighted on both sides and not moving anywhere.

There is an argument to be made that this is a good thing, that America needs a battle to the death between those who (say they) want less government and those who would like more of it.

I would argue that our system isn’t designed for that kind of winner-take-all arrangement. It depends on consensus and cooperation.

At a time when the country must make tough choices on how the government spends its money, a stalemate has been reached, and stalemates end when one of three things happens: one side fi nally wins; both sides agree to budge; or something happens to blow the whole thing up and force change.

Both Republicans and Democrats believe they will win, that someday soon the country will come to its senses and agree with their way of thinking, but there are a lot of forces on both sides to keep that from happening. Ideally, both sides will budge, but that doesn’t appear likely in the future.

That leaves only the“blow the whole thing up” third option, which none of us should want but which now seems a distant possibility.

Whether you think elected oft cials should maintain a solid set of values while cooperating to address our nation’s fi scal problems, or whether you think they should stand immovable so we can settle this less government/more government question once and for all, the system works best when a cross-section of voters participates throughout the process, starting with the primaries.

Choosing who our choices will be is just as important as choosing between them.

So I’ll see you at the polls - in May, hopefully, and in November.

STEVE BRAWNER IS AN INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST IN ARKANSAS.