Democrats and Republicans Could Learn a Lot From Libertarians

by Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, Esq.

My Republican and Democratic friends could learn a lot from my Libertarian friends.

No, I’m not talking about the general libertarian philosophy of less intrusive government, more personal responsibility and individual liberty and freedom.   Now, my Republican friends will say they believe in all those things, but let’s be honest.  These days, instead of governing as social conservatives, they seem more like conservative socialists, but I digress.

No, what I’m talking about is how Libertarians choose their candidates for public office, as opposed to Republicans and Democrats who have taxpayers foot the bill.

This past weekend in Fishers, Libertarians from across the state of Indiana got together and held their annual convention where they chose candidates for the U.S. Senate, Governor, Lt. Governor and several other offices.

And they did it on their own dime.  No taxpayers had to foot the bill for what is basically a private, political function.

Now juxtapose that to the latest antics in the Republican and Democrat world.

In the D and R world, you can’t run in a Republican or Democrat primary unless you voted in two of those respective primaries or you get a letter from your county chairperson saying it’s okay to do so.

If you think this is easy to do, just ask John Rust, who is trying/or tried to get on the ballot to challenge Jim Banks.   All the legal back and forth in this matter has made my head spin like Linda Blair in “The Exorcist”.  And when it was done all I wanted to do was throw up pea soup.

I have no problem with political parties picking their candidates; however, I do have a problem with an exclusionary process when it’s the taxpayers who are footing the bill.   If the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for political parties to pick their candidates, then the process should be more open, and as long as you meet the constitutional qualifications for the office, you should be allowed to run.

If that’s not what my Republican and Democratic friends want to do, then they should pay for their own selection process.  They should hold a convention, a caucus, or whatever, and pick their candidates and present them to the voters.  Heck, they already do it now.  It happens at their statewide conventions.  The delegates get together and choose who they want to represent the party at the ballot box.

This year, Republicans and Democrats will choose candidates for Lt. Governor and Attorney General and with the exception of Lt. Governor on the Democratic side, there are competitive races on both sides.

Why should Republicans have to pay for Democrats to choose their candidates, and why should Republicans have to pay for Democrats to choose their candidates?

Here’s a thought: everyone pays for their own selection process.

Now, if we are going to keep the current primary system, it should be an open one.  In the open system, I recommend that the candidates show up on the ballot: Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, anarchist and the voters pick the candidate.   The top vote-getter (50 to 60%) is declared the winner of the general election.  If no one gets 50 percent, then the top two vote-getters face each other in a runoff.

And here’s another added benefit.

Part of the reason our politics is so polarized is because a lot of districts are so gerrymandered that the only way to win is in a primary.  And since only more diehard Ds and Rs participate, the only way to win is usually to run further to the right or to the left than where the general electorate is and therefore, we get a much more polarized legislative body, And on top of that, more bills are introduced to cater to the far right or far left and the folks in the middle (which is most of the electorate) are left with no place to go.

So, we can either switch to a nomination process for candidate selection or a more open primary system.   Either one is much better than the system we have now.

Which why I said at the start of this column my Republican and Democratic friends can learn a lot from my Libertarian buddies.

Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is the editor and publisher of Indy Politics.  He is also a licensed attorney in Indiana and Illinois.  You can reach him at abdul@indypolitics.org.