Abolish state funded primary elections.

Reg Henry: Vote 'yes' to abolish primaries

Posted: May 27, 2014 - 12:01am

By REG HENRY

I am writing this on Pennsylvania primary election day and the excitement is palpable. Be still, my throbbing heart.

I arrive at the church where the wall of separation between church and state has been lowered for purposes of polling, which is reasonable. But where are the crowds of voters? It is about as crowded as the bar at the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Christmas party.

I declare my registration: Republican. I am a RINO — not the usual Republican In Name Only, but instead a Republican Intelligent Not Obtuse. Yes, you can argue about the intelligent part.

It’s hard, of course, and often embarrassing (thank you, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry). But even as the party grew angrier and less rational, I endured in the belief that there was nothing wrong with the GOP that some liberals in it couldn’t fix. Liberals were common in the party back when it was sane, but we have gone the way of the passenger pigeon.

If you are a true GOP stalwart, the sort of person who thought Sarah Palin highly intelligent, it is probably about now that you are saying: “This guy shouldn’t be voting in Republican primaries.”

Guess what? You are right. But you can rest easy, because in this primary Republican voters in my area had almost nothing to vote for: a governor opposed by a write-in candidate, some unopposed lawmakers, some committee people.

To someone like me who thinks of voting as an act of civic communion, it was like going to the altar and finding that they had run out of bread. But even in the best of times, primaries are ridiculous. It’s not just me who shouldn’t be voting in them, it’s everybody.

If you were born in this country, primaries may not seem odd to you, but in the places I lived — Australia, Britain — nothing so goofy could be imagined. Why have two elections a year? And what business does a state have in running elections for parties?

Primaries haven’t always existed here. They are relics of the progressive movement, which sought to get party bosses out of the equation and let the people decide. Bet they are sorry now.

For Republicans in particular, primaries have become contests to see who can be the biggest Neanderthal, an honor not so much appreciated by voters in the general election. Genghis Khan would be accused of being a liberal if he ran in a GOP primary.

Here’s an idea: Have parties pick their own candidates on their own dime, not the state’s, in their own way with their own members, maybe using a democratic caucus model. A state like Pennsylvania could save a ton of money by running only general elections and perhaps save us all from the extra bout of poisonous political TV ads every year.

By reducing state-run elections to once a year, people might actually come to regard voting as something special, not commonplace. More voters might go to the polls and with less risk of dying of loneliness.

Their hearts might actually throb and enthusiasm might be palpable, not pathetic.

Reg Henry is deputy editorial-page editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.