Back in the mid -1990s, an outfit called the New Party tried to remedy the issue by a different angle, called fusion voting. That’s a practice which lets more than one party nominate a candidate, and the candidate’s name appears more than once on the ballot. That way, different parties can team up, eliminating the spoiler effect, and the winning candidate knows from whence their support comes.
You’d think that the Democrats would be all about that? Think again. Minnesota’s state law bans fusion, and the Supreme Court held that the ban does not violate the 1st Amendment right of freedom of association, on the ground that the state has a compelling interest in preventing electoral chaos. That’s patently ridiculous, as New York allows it without issue. The DFL could change the law in Minnesota, but they still have not. The New Party subsequently disbanded, and only one former affiliate (Progressive Dane) is still active.
The two major parties work along the same lines to hinder voters to protect their own power, and this is only one example. But I still think of that case when people insist that 3rd parties should build their base in state and local races. That’s when I learned that, at the bottom line, the Democratic Party cares more about its power and prerogatives than what’s good for the country. Just like the GOP.
Back in the mid -1990s, an outfit called the New Party tried to remedy the issue by a different angle, called fusion voting. That’s a practice which lets more than one party nominate a candidate, and the candidate’s name appears more than once on the ballot. That way, different parties can team up, eliminating the spoiler effect, and the winning candidate knows from whence their support comes.
You’d think that the Democrats would be all about that? Think again. Minnesota’s state law bans fusion, and the Supreme Court held that the ban does not violate the 1st Amendment right of freedom of association, on the ground that the state has a compelling interest in preventing electoral chaos. That’s patently ridiculous, as New York allows it without issue. The DFL could change the law in Minnesota, but they still have not. The New Party subsequently disbanded, and only one former affiliate (Progressive Dane) is still active.
The two major parties work along the same lines to hinder voters to protect their own power, and this is only one example. But I still think of that case when people insist that 3rd parties should build their base in state and local races. That’s when I learned that, at the bottom line, the Democratic Party cares more about its power and prerogatives than what’s good for the country. Just like the GOP.