Political parties can no longer harness their bases

[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]

Lot of realistic assessment there.

[Sandy]

From my personal perspective, being a core partisan has never made sense. You get locked into a package of issues that require lock-step conformity. Try to find a candidate that favors strict gun responsibility, believes health care is a basic human right and that a single-payer, government owned and operated health care system is the best option for good care and low costs, is against abortion on demand, believes America is a refuge from terror, oppression and poverty to the third world, favors an open trade policy, wants to reduce defense spending and replace it with diplomacy, is interested in subsidizing all non-fossil fuel sources and believes in tuition-free junior college.

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

I have been registered as independent since 1973. Nobody in partisan politics likes folks like me.

[Sandy]

When I lived in Texas, you didn't have to register by party, you just chose your primary and went to vote. When I moved to Pennsylvania, you had to register by party, so I registered "independent," and then found out I couldn't vote in the primary, so I switched to Democrat. It's the same in Illinois. I understand the idea behind trying to prevent crossover voters from affecting primary outcomes but I honestly think the practice of requiring partisan registration contributes to the polarization. I also think that the straight ticket box should be eliminated from all ballots. The states that don't allow those happen to be states where independents have been elected to statewide elections.

[Haruo]

Really? A straight ticket box? Incredible!

(I really didn't know such a thing existed. I thought everybody had to check each race.)

[JE Pettibone]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

I don't really see the straight ticket box as a partisan issue. The legislature in Pennsylvania passed a repeal in 2014, and that was a bi-partisan bill in a majority Republican legislature with a Republican governor. He vetoed it. Now, under a Democratic governor who was just re-elected in a landslide, along with a Democratic majority in the state legislature, we will see if they reintroduce it.

I think having a straight ticket box on the ballot promotes partisanship and runs counter to the principles of a Republic. I think voters should have to look at each office on the ballot, the judges and the propositions.