Finally! The Wyoming Republican Party did something that will help the Big Empty.
Opinion
When my party voted at its recent convention to sue the State of Wyoming to free itself from the shackles of statutes that constrict it, that set in motion a process that will hopefully liberate us all from the shackles of partisan politics. For far too long, political parties have acted as some sort of third wheel, imposing themselves between people and government, and have usurped power that belongs to citizens.
The tail has been wagging the dog, and it’s high time to cut off the tail.
The state shouldn’t wait for a lengthy and expensive lawsuit; the Wyoming Legislature should take the first opportunity to convene, and open up Title 22 — our election code — with a chainsaw, not a scalpel. Every reference to political parties in state law should be mercilessly excised and tossed into the bin marked “medical waste.” It’s time to heal our body politic!
Extreme? Not when you grasp that political parties are nothing more than private membership organizations, no different than the Kiwanis or Elks clubs. Yet, over the decades, laws have been enacted that grant parties extraordinary power to influence citizens’ lives, and their exercise of that power has embroiled the entire state in their internal scandals and controversies.
Here’s our chance to put a stop to that nonsense.
If the Wyoming Legislature acts courageously, we’ll not only liberate ourselves from the clutches of political parties, but we’ll save a wagonload of public money, to boot. Political parties are expensive stepchildren to maintain, so let’s kick ‘em out of the house.
County and state government should only be legally required to conduct general elections, and costly partisan primaries should be things of the past. How the parties nominate candidates for the general election should be their business and not ours.
Parties could hold karaoke contests with applause meters to select candidates if they choose, or thumb-wrestling tournaments for all that we care. All we need are the names for the ballot. And we can save ink on those ballots if we don’t put a hyphenated letter behind the names.
Anyone else gathering, say, a thousand signatures would also appear on the ballot. If no candidate in a race receives a majority vote, then a quick runoff election would be held between the top two vote-getters.
We could even repurpose those fancy caucus rooms in the Capitol for the public to enjoy, instead of for the exclusive use of party card-carriers.
The only oxen to be gored in this scenario are the yard-sign makers and advertisers who rake in big bucks during primaries. But the rest of us would be emancipated from party bullshit.
Political parties should no longer be involved in filling vacancies in elected offices. Instead of parties anointing finalists for county commissions or the governor to select from, every vacancy should be filled via a special election. We can pay for those elections with the money we save by not having primaries.
A vacant seat belongs to the people of Wyoming, not to a partisan organization, and the people should fill it directly. Eliminating the role of parties in our civic system will allow citizens to interact directly with their government instead of through partisan intermediaries with differing agendas.
Political parties should conduct their own business without interference from government. And vice versa!
This is not such a radical notion if you consider that the words “political party” occur nowhere in our federal or state constitutions. They shouldn’t occur in our statutes either.
In fact, in our entire foundational canon, “political parties” are mentioned only in the Federalist Papers, specifically #10. In that letter, James Madison called the parties “factions” and predicted their disruptive influence and the danger of granting them too much power in a democracy. Madison, as it turns out, was right.
None of this is to say that you can’t belong to the party of your choice; restricting that would be unconstitutional. Feel free to join any exclusive organization you want, complete with loyalty oaths and secret handshakes. Live by whatever platform blows your skirt up. But don’t pout if the Legislature eliminates laws that allow your organization to impose its dogma on the rest of us.
The GOP’s decision presents the Wyoming Legislature with a rare opportunity. Lawmakers can cleanse, streamline and economize our political system by divorcing us from political parties once and for all. I hope they seize this chance to liberate our political system from the negative influence of partisanship.
Doing so would eliminate a troublesome barrier between citizens and their government.
