Make Change; Register as a Democrat

The Oregonian calls for open primaries

A recent Opinion piece in the Oregonian (“Oregon’s closed primaries are degrading state’s legacy of democratic innovation” by David Ellis and Jeremy Gruber) point to the steady rise in unaffiliated voters, who are not allowed to participate in Oregon state primaries. Could it be that the rise in unaffiliated voters is a symptom of the souring of bipartisanism in this country? Or perhaps the both-sidesism of our media coverage in the last election has left voters with the feeling that both parties are equally corrupt? A pox on both your houses! Or, perhaps, because the process of registering is automatic at the DMV, people may just not be thinking about checking the political party box when they are go for their licenses.

Independent Voters aren’t “Independent”

But independent voters, and, by extension, nonaffiliated voters are not as independent as they might like to believe. Bruce E. Keith tackles this in his book, The Myth of the Independent Voter. He claims that most of them reliably vote for one party or the other. I used to work with someone who was vehemently independent. We have to accept the fact that more and more people feel about Democrats (and Republicans) the way many of us feel about Christians after an onslaught of Evangelicalism: I may agree with Democrats (Christ) but I don’t want anything to do with the Democratic/Republican Party (Christianity). Or, for better analogy: people think public schools (Congress) don’t function, but their local school (congressperson) is great.

Pitfalls of the Open Primary

One of the dangers of an open primary is that people who don’t want your party to succeed can vote for candidates that they feel aren’t electable or don’t reflect the values of that party. A party needs to be able to define its values and, through this, its members.

You have the Power

One of the people in my district shared with me that as a college student, his Political Science class was encouraged to get involved in local Democratic Party politics as an experiment. They became Precinct Committee Persons and took over their local precinct. (Fortunately, college students predominantly embrace Democratic values.) If all elections are local, and you can affect real change on the local level, then why wouldn’t you?

Define Your Values and Reregister

My values as a Democrat include: a strong, but responsive and effective government to protect our environment, support equality/equity, opportunity, public amenities (like good public schools, parks, and libraries), infrastructure (roads and bridges), provide a safety net for the differently-abled and underserved, and protect our rights and freedoms. Define your values and see what party most supports those values. Then, if you are an unaffiliated or Independent voter, reregister with that party, and if you have more time, become a PCP. Become engaged not enraged. Here’s the link: https://multdems.org/bapv