By Mike Weland
Publisher
The role of a political party is to help like-minded citizens more effectively present their ideas and ideals for the betterment of a nation’s government, provided, of course, that the nation affords its citizens a role. For a brief 248 years citizens of the United States, on the foundation laid by the U.S. Constitution, have borne the responsibility and enjoyed the privilege of being integral to our own governance; of the people, by the people, for the people.
But one party seems to have forgotten that. In Idaho, Proposition 1 may be the only hope of shoring up our constitution before the ramparts of democracy fall.
The purpose of a political party is to better our government. It is not to bring power to the party, and certainly not to a single faction thereof. But the Republican Party, long my party of choice, has for the last few decades worked to make it more difficult to vote, and it’s ramped up its effort exponentially since former president Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden and promulgated the big lie in 2020. By then, Donald Trump had already beaten the party into submission to his will, and most still cower.
Following the 2020 election until October 4, 2021, Republicans offered up more than 425 bills to restrict voting access in 49 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. By year’s end, 33 of the bills passed in 19 states, nearly all of them in response to lies and false claims and unnecessary.
Idaho Republicans got an early start. In March, 2011, Judge B. Lynn Winmill, U.S. District of Idaho, ruled in favor of the Republican Party of Idaho against Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, agreeing with the GOP that the state’s requirement of an open primary, which allowed non-members to play in its, primaries, violated the party’s constitutional right to freedom of association.
When a political party works hard to restrict access to the ballot box, alarm bells should go off in the head of every American citizen with a sense of logic and the franchise to vote — something is amiss and chances are good it ain’t what … or who … the disaffected are blaming. Makes no difference which party.
But the timing of the clamor we now face is telling, especially considering the factions that gained footholds in the halls of power since the clamor began. We’re not where we are right now because of the genius of Donald Trump, the wisdom of his policies, his uncommon common sense. Donald John Trump possesses no genius, no wisdom, no common sense.
We’re here because in 2008, misguided voters elected a man with a funny name and the wrong complexion to the oval office. While certainly an affront to a large and homogenous faction who voted otherwise, it was bearable to them if they shut their eyes and bit down hard enough on that stick and kept their eyes shut just long enough for Barack to prove what everybody already knew with scientific certainty … governance was a complex, almost mystical undertaking fit only for our best and brightest: white Christian conservative men. Old men.
But then Barack Obama began showing competence, a burgeoning confidence that let him laugh in the face of a rich New Yorker clamoring to see his birth certificate. He served for eight long and interminable years. They kept their eyes sealed.
When baby ducks hatch and open their eyes, they “imprint” on the first and biggest thing they see move and that becomes “mom,” for better or worse, ’til death do us part. When the righteous opened their eyes in the waning days of the Obama administration their eyes beheld the Donald descending the golden escalator and he became their be all and end all. Their great white hope.
Without Barack Obama, there would never have been a Trump presidency.
But I digress.
When a political party works so hard to restrict access to the ballot box, one and/or two things are at play: 1) That party is out of ideas with which to elicit votes on merit, and/or 2) that party is making a grab for power. The former is understandable and tolerable. The latter is cause for serious alarm, as we know from bitter experience. When Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers’ Party rose to power in Germany in 1933, what had up until then been simply “Germany” took on an exciting new name appending the party’s initials, “Nazi Germany” until war’s end in 1945.
It’s fairly obvious what is at play here now as an extreme faction of candidates claiming to be Republican and claiming to be conservative have now risen to power in support of Trump, and with predictable results.
The Republican Party that once was is unrecognizable, ineffective … a laughingstock. In both houses of the U.S. Congress, the GOP more resembles a runaway clown car than a serious deliberative body. Here in North Idaho, we’ve elected such fine and capable stalwarts as Scott Herndon and Heather Scott, proud liberty-loving patriots who measure their success not by what they accomplish but by how well they step out when ordered to march by the various forms and faces of their glee clubs with the word “Freedom” prominent in the title.
There are those who deride all politics and politicians as liars and egoists and perhaps there is some truth to that, but until only recently there were limits, lines that couldn’t be crossed else the American people would raise their eyebrows, and typically the parties led the effort to clean house, lest the party bear the shame. The GOP, on the whole, has succumbed.
Even a majority of pre-Trump Republicans who once served the public interest with aplomb have crossed over to the dark side, more interested in maintaining their cush status than in upholding the constitution they swore fealty to.
Ever wonder why you seldom hear from the Idaho Congressional Delegation? Except on rare occasion, they no longer send out news releases. Instead, they send out baseless screeds to maintain their credibility with Donald Trump and MAGA and to assure their particular version of Freedom Foundation oversight compliance commission that they are good and obedient conservative sheep, even when the hypocrisy is blatantly obvious.
“U.S. Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch and U.S. Representatives Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher today demanded the Biden-Harris Administration answer for its failure to stop the flow of illicit and deadly fentanyl into Idaho.” “U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) joined Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and 31 Senate and U.S. House of Representatives colleagues in demanding President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris collect DNA samples from every immigrant the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) encounters, per the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005.”
Funny how they can demand answers to a problem so clearly exacerbated by their chosen one, solved with a bipartisan bill drafted primarily by a Republican conservative. The bill got widespread support but for the daft idiot who killed it, former President Donald Trump.
The man now in a dangerously close race for a second term in office, not to serve the people but to save himself from prison, has something now that he lacked first time around, something no other president ever needed or wanted, a dispensation from his handpicked Supreme Court that would make him, if he’s elected, the first American ever to be legally declared above the law, thus perverting our system of justice, which is of necessity an all or none affair. And he has promised he will use it.
I voted early, so I can tell you with certainty how I voted.
I voted for Proposition 1, and I support both open primaries and ranked choice voting despite the rash of illogical and untrue fear mongering shrieked by the very people the measure is designed to protect us from.
First and foremost (if it’s not already too late), the measures will break the stranglehold a radical faction has on the GOP as well as make it far more difficult for radical factions of any stripe to infiltrate elective office by unfair manipulation. Secondly, these measures should eliminate the apparent need that now exists to incessantly ask for donations rather than tell us what they offer in exchange for our vote.
And despite what those now abusing offices of public trust who fear being relegated back beneath the fringe under which Trump found them, there is no arcane mathematical voodoo involved in ranked choice voting.
Eric Lindenbusch, I have no objection to your using my name to attribute opposition to your exemplars, but goodness! (“Protect democracy by voting against Prop 1,” October 24, 2024, Bonners Ferry Herald) Next time please save yourself the embarrassment of being corrected in public and submit such letters to me first! I’d have explained it in private and given you time to consider and so be spared the indignity of being wrong in public. I’m pretty decent that way.
He contends that under the ranked-choice voting model, the candidate with the most first-choice votes may end up losing the election.
“Imagine Prop 1 is in place,” Eric goes on to say. “I’m actually required to rank Kamala Harris for my ballot to count? As a conservative Catholic, are you kidding me? Mike Weland of 9B.News would likewise be required to rank Donald Trump on his ballot. Are you kidding him?”
You are by no means required to use your ballot to rank every candidate. As is the case now and for as long as I’ve drawn breath, your ballot will not be invalid even if you don’t vote every race.
Now I do admit, ranked choice does give you the option of completely coloring in more tiny circles than you may be used to, and open primary ballots don’t delineate the candidates on separate primary ballots (pieces of paper), as is done now. If you accidently color in the wrong dot on the closed primary ballot, at least you know you voted the right party. With ranked choice, you have to be a little more careful lest you cast your vote for a communist, a Nazi or, God forbid, a liberal Democrat.
Just remember, voting is serious responsibility … it’s not meant to be easy. It takes concentration to choose the right dot and color within the lines.
As far as the math, it’s pretty straight forward and it’s not handled by the voters, Want to really simplify? Do away with the electoral college. Did you know some candidates can currently win the popular vote and lose the election? Ranked choice voting and automatic runoffs would make that easier.
I gave my vote for president to Kamala Harris, because of course I did. Don’t listen to the MAGA lies, the Fox falsehoods.
Personally, I give little to no credence to policy statements, campaign promises or platform pledges. That’s why I’ve never voted for Trump. Never even been tempted. The policy statements and promises of a liar and conman are nothing but enticements he thinks will work at convincing you to give him something you have that he wants. And once he has it, you don’t get it back once you realize you’ve been swindled. You’ve been conned, you’re one of them suckers being born every minute.
I’ll leave the ballot empty before I give my meager little vote to anyone so clearly unfit for public service, so bereft of even the most basic attributes of a decent human being.
I have but one overarching reason for voting Harris; She has empathy. She is not afraid to show compassion. She does not mock, belittle or berate others over that which they have no control but will not hesitate to call out the deliberate words and actions of those who have or who threaten to cause injury, harm or loss to others. She worked for what she has and she rose to where she is through hard work and a record of accomplishment. She built a career in service to the public.
She has great respect for the constitution and the rule of law and has long upheld her oath to protect and defend the United States Constitution, which she has done, against enemies foreign and domestic. She is not Donald Trump. She is not a fascist. She is qualified and competent and she has stepped forward with courage and integrity to fight the dragon. When elected, she will uphold democracy and serve all who are or who aspire to legally become U.S. citizens, not just those who do obeisance.
Other than that …
A look at open primary and ranked choice ballots
Alaska’s primaries are open, with voters in each district receiving and voting the same ballot. On August 20, House District 29 voters used this Primary Election ballot listing every candidate for each race. In the primary, voters select only one candidate per race. Results are tabulated and the top four move on to the general election November 5, regardless of party.
On November 5, Alaskan voters in district 29 will use this ranked choice ballot, ranking one or all presidential candidates and the four top finishers from each primary race.
