November 08, 1972

Straight Vote Aids Two-Party System

When I became 21 and got ready to cast my first vote we were well into World War II and I was pounding a typewriter for Uncle Sam aboard the USS Eagle 27.

As I saw it, the Democrats were winning the war so in two successive elections I got absentee ballots and voted the straight Democratic ticket.

When my first peace-time election drew near I concluded it was more sophisticated to be an "independent" voter so I cast ballots for both Democrats and Republicans.  I was aware of the qualifications for the few top national offices and cast my votes with assurance.

I am ashamed to admit, however, that I had not informed myself about the state and local offices.  In my determination to rise above "party politics" I marked Xes at random, choosing names that were familiar or had the same Anglo-Saxon ring as mine.

An hour later I couldn't tell my wife most of whom I had voted for.  And, worse, the Congressmen I remembered voting for -the best men in my opinion - joined their Party in organizing Congress to frustrate the president I had supported of the opposite party.

I have never gotten over the remorse of that wasted ballot.

Since those early, naive days of my political experience I have come to appreciate the effectiveness of the two-party system we have in the U.S.

The practical citizen who wants to get things done has learned that it is smarter to vote a straight party ticket.  When a slate is working together it can over ride opposition at will.

The conscientious citizen often has neither the time nor inclination to study all the candidates and issues.  He has learned that it is more intelligent to hold a political party responsible for good government than to elect nincompoops because their names sound right.

The so-called independent voter who splits his ballot GENERALLY accomplishes nothing.  I qualify the statement because a few well-placed gadflys from the opposite side of the aisle can keep an entrenched party on its toes.  For example, the value of Ralph Perk, Republican auditor in Cleveland's Democratic stronghold, in keeping the political machine honest and efficient is immense.

It is on this theory that a friend of mine always votes for the party NOT in power.  The truly independent voter is one who votes a straight ticket but chooses which ever party comes nearest to the country's needs at any given election.

Those who believe strongly in the two-party system vote a straight ticket, for the most part.  As with any other organization, the political party must have workers, support and financial sources it can depend upon.  People who always split their votes, between parties have not helped either as a rule, the lack of partisan commitment is also a cover for the lack of a money contribution.

Minority and special interest groups have handed the Democratic party easy victories for several decades.  But they are beginning to understand that their welfare is best served by two strong parties competing on an equal footing for bloc votes.  Sure votes command little bargaining power.

It is interesting that a dynamic political system is based on two parties - no more, no less.  The one-party system of Russia, China, Spain and some of the African and Asian nations is really a no-party dictatorship.

The multi-party system of most European countries is not a system at all but a method of avoiding responsibility.

I remember a political science professor in college who tried to sell his students on the fairness of 'the "proportional representation" system which gave 'voting power to every shade of political thought.  His favorite example of this "modern" concept was France.

Like so many other academic theories, it just didn't work in practice.  France's fragmented government was unable to coordinate her military defenses and so was whipped by the Nazi war machine.  After being liberated by the United States, France bogged down with governments that measured their lives by weeks.  The reaction, of course, was a benevolent dictatorship under Charles DeGaulle.

There are some in the United States who feel we are perilously close to one-party government here and so in danger of the excesses which flow from such a situation.

I do feel we are out of balance, but I find nothing to support the demise of either American major party.  We've just gotten a little mixed up in our labels during the last generation so that the difference between a conservative Democrat and a liberal Republican is hard to find.  We have extreme Democrats in the South who are identical with extreme Republicans in the North.  Nowadays we tend to vote according to labels rather than to convictions.

There's nothing wrong with the American two party system that a little intelligent voting won't cure.

Author: Lindsey Williams