OUTLAW INLAW
Whatever the outcome was Tuesday (I’m writing this a week ahead of time), I am hopeful about our government for the first time in 20-plus years, which dates back to when H. Ross Perot ran for president.
He ran as a third party candidate back in 1992. I thought the Texarkana native’s Reform Party was going to do just that– reform politics in America. Well, this third party candidate was able to disrupt the system but that’s all he did.
All his run did was help defeat the first Bush President, George H.W., and get Bill Clinton elected.
What I liked about Perot’s campaign, besides the fact that he was a Texan, was that he wanted to balance the United States budget. Many other moderates also supported his run. He won 18.9 percent of the popular vote and not a single electoral vote.
This electoral-college voting system we have has seen better days. It’s based on a healthy two-party system. Notice that I said healthy.
I can’t help but think of our two-party system as sick. One party has had the flu, and because they work with the other party in Washington, D.C. and in Austin, it has infected the other party.
Voters are finding out that these flu symptoms were misdiagnosed and what the first party contracted was rabies. Now both parties are infected, and our two-party political system is doomed.
It seems ill-fated to me, because it constrains voters. One thing America has never lacked in is choice. Drop into our local grocery store and try picking out a cereal or cold beverage and a plethora of options will be front and center.
Our current two-party system limits our choices for a third, fourth or fifth party. It seems almost un-American that we have only two choices when it comes to governing. But I digress.
This election cycle, well, that’s a different story. I cast my ballot early in Gillespie County this year. Since I’m commuting, I went to the polls on a Sunday. What I wasn’t expecting was a crowd. I stood side-by-side with 300 plus Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians to cast my vote in a midterm election—300, in a midterm election on a Sunday within a two-hour time period. The week before Tuesday’s election 7,000 plus Gillespie County residents voted early. What I was a part of was an informed electorate doing their duty and it felt good.
The numbers in Milam County (and all Texas counties) were inspiring, too. Early voting numbers were 5,000-plus in Milam County during this midterm election. It surpassed early voting in the 2016 presidential election by 1,000 votes.
No matter the outcome on Tuesday, I am hopeful for the first time since 1992.
I am hopeful because what I saw at my polling location was a coming together of Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians.
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