In his recent column “Primaries deserve dustbin” [Dec. 8], Jonah Goldberg calls for ending partisan political primaries. Goldberg writes, “The real cost of primaries — all of them — is that they are bad for democracy.” Goldberg is a conservative and I’m a liberal, but I agree with him on that.
Along with social media and cable news, partisan primaries are one of the greatest sources of unwarranted political and cultural division in America. As Goldberg notes, they empower the political and cultural extremes at the expense of the great majority. I don’t believe government has any more business helping political parties choose candidates than it does helping Baptist churches choose deacons.
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Partisan primaries created Donald Trump, made him president, and were his greatest source of power. It’s how, as Goldberg also notes, Donald Trump turned the Republican Party into profiles in cowardice. Every Republican politician now cowers in fear that Trump will “primary” them.
As far as I can determine, America is the only country in the world that uses partisan primaries to choose candidates for public office. We should critically examine this practice, its origins and its effect on democracy.
In 1896, South Carolina created the “white primary” to exclude black voters. Over the next few years, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Georgia followed suit. Until the 1960s, winning a Democratic primary in the South meant winning the general election.
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago was a mob scene due to protests against the Vietnam War. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated for president without competing in any of the Democratic primaries. The “smoke-filled room” was seen as a problem.
The McGovern Commission was created to reform the nomination process. The result was an explosion of partisan presidential primaries. Since then, presidential candidates have been chosen by the voting public instead of by the respective political parties.
Reforming the nomination process enabled President Richard Nixon to use dirty tricks to sabotage the campaign of the leading Democrat, Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, in 1972. Nixon’s campaign effectively chose its opponent, Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota. In that election, Nixon won every state except Massachusetts.
As if party primaries were not bad enough, the Republican Party continues with the “unit rule.” This means a presidential candidate can win all of a state’s delegates by winning a plurality of its votes. This rule enabled Donald Trump to win the 2016 nomination with only 44 percent of the vote. This rule, also used in the Electoral College, enabled Trump to win the 2016 election with only 46 percent of the vote (2.9 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton).
Despite the sordid, anti-democratic nature and history of partisan primaries in America, there’s a simple, easy solution to it: the Louisiana nonpartisan blanket primary. All candidates from all parties run in one primary election, each designating a political party. The top two — regardless of party — are then in the runoff. Texas has been using this type of primary for decades in special elections.
Since 1978, Louisiana has used the nonpartisan primary to elect federal, state and local officials. David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was defeated for U.S. Senator and governor of Louisiana in the 1990s. The nonpartisan primary helped prevent Duke from taking over the Republican Party in Louisiana.
As a result of good-government initiatives in recent years, the nonpartisan primary, in one form or another, has spread to four other states: California, Washington, Maine and Alaska. The voters of Maine adopted it in 2016, and Alaska in 2020. It is already producing good results in each of these states.
Sarah Palin’s abrasive, divisive politics of personal destruction backfired in Alaska’s new nonpartisan primary this year. Alaska’s primary also includes ranked-choice voting and instant runoffs. In Alaska, one of the most strongly Republican states in the country, Palin came in a distant second in the first round with only 26 percent of the vote. In Alaska’s first instant runoff election, Palin lost to Democrat Mary Peltola by 10 percent.Partisan primaries fuel the politics of hate, fear, greed and lies. Creating nonpartisan primaries in every state would be a significant step for democracy in America. I don’t believe anything would do more to end the culture war.
We need a democratic reform movement in Texas and America to adopt nonpartisan primaries and other needed democratic reforms.
Nevadans advance nonpartisan primary measure, face another vote in 2024: Nonpartisan primaries would include independents, but studies show the change does not reduce polarization in U.S. politics.
Charles Reed is a retired federal employee and former mayor of Waco.
