I had an idea, reading an article on why nobody votes in local elections, and how some of it is that those elections are non-partisan, and therefore vague, difficult, or unimportant to voters.
What if, when or if local elections became partisan, the system was set up to accommodate more than two parties? What if then, once in office, people could explore what it means to gather with like minds around like ideas, and then work together and compromise? What if people could identify with something other than D or R when they ran?
We have a lot of issues in this country with the two-party system, and I have often tried to understand it—to explain it, to frame it—as two coalitions of people of many different “parties.” Greens and socialists and liberals and blue dogs and the lot gather and govern as the “Democrats.” But it is not set up that way, and the barriers to real multi-party elections are many, likely impossible to overcome at the Federal level. But what if we could explore it at the local level?
My objections to having partisan local elections are all about people voting Party-line without looking at candidates or issues. At the local level, a party machine could overwhelm the meager resources of local opponents. It would make politics even more political, if you can imagine. It would probably take some election reform the likes of which we have been unable to attain. But again, we’ve looked at that at the Federal level. What could we do at the local level?
Would this be a way for conservatives who are aghast at Trump to leave the Republican Party without having to become Democrats? Yes, clearly.
I know there are a myriad of problems with this idea. I grew up in Europe, so I have no rose-colored view of a many-party parliamentary style government. But what if?
Could this just be a sort of grassroots thing? “I’m Joe and I’m running for Mayor in line with the platform of the Green Thumb Party.” Could this be a way for conservatives to decry Trump and the Republican Party without having to become a Democrat? I know lots of them would like an option to do that.
Thoughtful comments only, please?