Doug Thompson: Democracy doubted at home

Son’s questions stir thoughts of election reform

My voting-age son lost faith in American democracy, at least for now. That bothers me, but not severely. The young often doubt the wisdom of any political system.

What bothered me much more was my lack of a strong, ready reply.

My embarrassment sprang from more than just this toxic presidential election. For instance, we're headed for yet another melodramatic hissy fit on the federal budget. Why? Because 40 zealots in a 435-member U.S. House of Representatives want one.

The system is not as broken as it looks. A united government brought us the Iraq invasion. Another similar spell of harmony passed Obamacare. Gridlock and drift have their advantages for both sides, particularly conservatives. Harmony seems to do them lasting damage whichever way it goes.

Still, I pondered my son's remark. Weeks passed. He has a point. American democracy is broken. What's wrong with it? Primaries.

I have faith in general election voters. The problem is they can only choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee by the time they finally get to vote. We have two major parties, and those parties pick their candidates by primaries. People who vote in primaries tend to be more partisan. Those primaries also have rules that make those contests more partisan than they have to be.

The Republicans make blunders like winner-take-all presidential primaries, which are designed to impose consensus when there is none. Democrats are even worse. They still have some caucuses, which simply hand those states' delegates over to zealots.

Related to this, presidential primaries bring out droves of people who want imposed solutions. Many of them don't even show up for mid-term elections. They don't want a functioning process. They want what they want and want it now.

That's the most frightening problem with primaries. The U.S. Constitution is built to prevent anyone from getting their hands on all the power. Yet the zealots picking our candidates in the primaries want all the power. When the voters won't give it to them, they want to shut the government down or try going around the voters by going to the courts.

Look at how many liberals hate the Democratic nominee as much as Republicans do. They want the Republican, Donald Trump, to win because they think he'll drive the country over the edge. Then they can finally have the liberal counter-revolution they crave -- they think.

Believe me, election results nationwide show no great progressive groundswell. If there's a liberal revolution going on, the Cossacks are winning.

Some say a third party is needed. That would only make things worse. Nothing would require more zealotry than to create a new, viable political party. Having a third Tweedle-whatever picked by a smaller sub-group of zealots won't help.

Others say campaign finance reform would fix things. Then Trump rose to the top of the Republican primary on nothing but hot air.

There's only one reform I've heard of that tries to get at the core problem. Therefore, my son can take some credit. The thought he provoked convinced me to vote for a top-two open primary if I get the chance.

The top-two system is exactly that. The top two vote-getters in the primaries get to be the candidates in the general election. If that's two Democrats or if it's two Republicans, so be it. The theory is that catering to the "party base" in a primary won't guarantee a candidate a spot on the November ballot. Somebody with broader appeal might win.

Four states including California have tried this system or something like it. Only two did before 2008. I've read some pretty severe criticism about the system, especially from California. Nothing critical I've read so far holds water. For instance, opponents claimed minorities would be shut out. Minority representatives in California's general assembly went up. Democrats there complained bitterly in 2014 that the system clearly favored Republicans. This year, no Republican made the general election ballot for California's open U.S. Senate seat.

But no, I cannot guarantee that top-two would help. When my own son is expressing doubts about democracy, though, I'm willing to try it. After all, democracy is a system where voters try to fix their own problems. That's what democracy is.

There's no flying saucer full of angelic rulers from outer space who will make the right decisions for us, and I don't trust any select sub-set of humans. It's all for one and one for all in my eyes.

Commentary on 09/24/2016

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