What’s driving poor primary election attendance?

The Frontiersman has called for public input on dealing with poor primary election attendance. Poor voter turnout is not an actual problem. It is really a combined symptom of three problems. Not many citizens and absolutely no government officials want to face all three. It’s much easier to sanctimoniously blame one’s favorite political whipping boy. Naturally, nothing happens.

Problem No. 1 — The political problem that a clear majority of Alaskans know about and are fighting is the entrenched corruption of the two-party system (Democrat vs. Republican). This revolt is ethically founded on one of the foundations for conducting organized liberty: freedom from involuntary association. It is a fact that registered Non-Partisan/Undeclared/Independent Alaskans severely outnumber the registered Alaskan Democrats and Republicans combined. Yet despite the majority political will so expressed, primary elections are mainly held for the benefit of just these two political minorities.

Worse, more than 10 years ago, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Alaska Republican party is a private political club. This allowed them to force the state to segregate primary election ballots to let only Republicans and “unaffiliated” voters vote for their candidates at every government level. In other words, a clear majority of Alaskans are forced — forced — to tolerate use of public resources for private-club elections that clearly benefit only political minorities. This is unless they succumb to the enslavement of involuntary association.

Problem No. 2 — A key problem that’s suppressing civic participation like voting is the irresponsible and selfish character of too many people. These folks now get politically active only when their prejudices and self-centered appetites for politicians “bringing home the bacon” aren’t being served. It is this alone that is rushing our form of government into history’s garbage can. Benjamin Franklin — in his last speech to the U.S. Constitutional Convention — explained it best:

“Sir, I agree to this constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism as other forms have done before it when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”

So how can I accuse those who scoff at or neglect civic participation as being corrupt — in a far worse manner than any of Alaska Legislature’s infamous Corrupt Bastard’s Club? Or how can those who chant “throw the bums out of government” while failing to perform their own citizenship duties be called corrupt hypocrites?

The Alaska Constitution explains it best:

“Article I, Inherent Rights — this constitution is dedicated to the principle that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the enjoyment of the rewards of their own industry; that all persons are equal and entitled to equal rights, opportunities, and protection under the law; and that all persons have corresponding obligations to the people and to the State. [Note that the last clause is a supreme law mandate for unarguable civic responsibility corresponding to citizen rights and privileges.]

“Article I, Source of Government — All political power is inherent in the people. All government originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the people as a whole.”

It doesn’t say that government originates from, and is founded on the will of, “elected officials,” politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucrats — does it?

Problem No. 3 — ignorance is the most powerful and vicious terrorist attacking humanity there is. It is the super-food that feeds human selfishness and irresponsibility. The ignorance of citizens, of elected or appointed government officials, and of the teachers who teach all of them about government is the third and perhaps greatest problem destroying the practice of organized liberty. The open fact of insufficient constitutional function by a majority of citizens and their elected officials is irrefutable evidence of incompetent education.

So let me shock you out of your complacency. By open conduct and practice, we live under a people-friendly elected elite/aristocracy — not an elected representative government at all. All the problems of centralized government power (susceptibility to bribery, blackmail, money-driven lawmaking and “elections,” police state methodologies, etc.) surround us like a sewer. But our political heritage is one of decentralized power — despite its inefficiencies. That’s why we’re not supposed to be just government “of” and “for” the people. We are also supposed to be government “by”— I said “by”— the people. We’re not. When was the last time your elected representative asked you to apply your mind to solving a widespread problem that he could represent? Well? Understand me now?

Why have generations of political “leaders” and “statesmen” — supposedly charged with preserving our political heritage — let this come to pass? Founding father Thomas Paine (in the conclusion to his “Rights of Man”) explains:

“Reason and ignorance, the opposite of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

My next column will deal with five standalone solutions to these problems. Thoughtful people might already be guessing what they are.

Stuart Thompson lives in Wasilla. Contact him at lookitover@att.net.