“As a child, my family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.”
…Buddy Hackett
Take it or leave it. Most people would say that’s no choice at all. We wouldn’t shop in a store for ice cream if we only had a choice of two flavors – neither being especially tempting – so it’s amazing that Americans aren’t screaming bloody murder that we’re stuck with just two choices for the most important elected position on the planet.
But what they are doing, in increasing numbers, is what most of us would do at the ice cream store; they’re leaving it. They’re walking away. The number of people making the choice not to vote in the presidential election is going up. In 2016, it reached a 20 year high. Why? An ABC-Washington Post poll found that Clinton and Trump were the most disliked presidential candidates in more than 30 years. That goes a long way to explaining why people chose not to participate.
A reality TV host with zero public service experience, questionable intelligence and morals plus the verbal skills of a fourth grader vs. a candidate with decades of experience but a track record that left voters questioning her judgment, truth-telling and trustworthiness didn’t give voters much to get excited about. Both candidates entered the race with so much baggage and so many negatives that too many who did vote chose the candidate they disliked the least…the lesser of two evils. In this great nation, we should be affirmatively choosing a president based on their position on national issues. When it comes to character, that should be a given. In 2016, it was not.
In the world’s bastion of democracy, more people stayed home than voted. If ‘don’t give a damn’ had a name and been counted, s/he would have won in a landslide.
This might explain the significant rise of Independent or Non Party Affiliation (NPA) voters. They tend to be more moderate in their views and are the fastest growing political group – not just in Florida, but across the country. In Florida, the number of voters who register as ‘other’ has grown by more than a million in the past 10 years compared to Democrats who grew by 300,000 and Republicans by 200,00 (2015 data). These voters may be more open to working together, to compromising, to prioritizing country before party than those who automatically vote along party lines. The fact that they refuse to identify officially with either party, as well as their numbers, make this the group to be reckoned with. This is the group that determines who wins elections…if they show up. But this is the group that was conspicuously missing in action in 2016. And from their viewpoint, who could blame them, given the choices.
Larry Sabato, Professor at the University of Virginia, confirmed that “because of the structure of the contemporary party system, every President is polarizing.” Captain Obvious couldn’t have said it better. But if we’re ever to return to a political culture where the other person isn’t the devil incarnate, one of two things has to happen. Either both parties remake themselves to reflect the best of who their voters are, as well as their professed principles, or more of us will become NPA’s and look elsewhere as moderates from both parties come together to support a viable third party candidate.
In the past, both parties have relied on ‘norms’ – standard past practices, behaviors and expectations we’ve taken for granted – for instance, some modicum of past successful public service and the release of several years of income tax returns, for starters. A past, free of corruption, would also be nice. These should be requirements. But so too should the ability to gain top secret clearance. If this clearance is required for high level Cabinet and other key officials, then it should be so for all presidential candidates. An announcement to run for President from anyone should immediately trigger this process – regardless of any previous offices held. That alone will discourage some from entering the race, especially if the results were to be made public.
If both parties are to remain relevant into the future, they need to stop putting their fist on the scale or adjusting their platform based on the whims of a candidate or their supporters. I’ll leave it up to Republicans to comment on their problems – the fact that the party allowed Trump to participate under their banner is itself mind numbing. Reagan and Buckley must be turning over in their graves. As far as Democrats are concerned, the existence of super delegates and having them make a selection before the first primary vote is cast, use of non-democratic primary caucuses, and the clear lack of neutrality at both the state and DNC levels, all did a disservice to the term ‘democratic.’
Leadership in both parties needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. After picking up the shattered glass, each would benefit from setting up a high level Commission to address the changes that need to be made, to institute those changes for the good of the Republic and to assure the current two party system remains both viable and relevant.
Who we are as a country and as individuals ultimately comes down to the choices we make. But we have to have decent options to begin with. If what has been our favorite ice cream shop no longer offers quality products, we will find one that does.
Or we’ll build our own.
Villager Marsha Shearer is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
