At the risk of making myself part of a set of Russian nesting pundits, please let me take this opportunity to endorse Fareed Zakaria‘s column in yesterday’s Washington Post about how to escape our dysfunctional politics, which is itself an endorsement of a column former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards wrote for the The Atlantic. Edwards suggests a set of six reforms, some of which involve internal procedural reforms in Congress, but two of which are dorectly conected to reducing the influence of party zealots on the political process. Looking at the huge number of Americans who are registering as Independents who are deprived of the ability to select candidates, Edwards recommends open primaries in which independents can vote, which would dilute the influence of party hardliners over the choice of candidates. Edwards also recommends putting redistricting in the hands of independent boards that will draw, as much as possible, competitive districts. California will do that this year; let’s hope they lead the way.
Today, too few candidates have to compete for votes across the political spectrum, and too many merely have to satisfy the core voters of one party to get elected. This encourages partisanship and rigidity. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to see that the great vast market of soda drinkers benefits from having Coke and Pepsi compete for their business, but that even Coke loyalists and Pepsi faithful benefit when the companies have to strive to keep prices low, dream up new promotions, and maximize product availability. Competitive districts and open primaries would help voters by making candidates compete harder among more segments of the electorate. Forty years ago, in all my impatient teenage wisdom, I used to complain that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats. Today I know there is much much more than a dime’s difference, and I see how very costly, and damaging, that gap is.