America's moderates can have a powerful voice
As a result of gerrymandering, of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, nearly 70 percent are controlled by one political party. Opposing party voters end up knowing their candidates can never win unless the district is someday re-gerrymandered.
We saw this play out in our own congressional district in 2010 when Jeff Miller ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Heath Shuler for the District 11 seat. Jeff had almost no chance of winning because our gerrymandered district had an overwhelming number of Democratic voters.
Then the tables turned. The GOP won control of the N.C. Legislature for the first time in a century at the end of 2010, and it took immediate action to gerrymander every district possible in its favor. Shuler, knowing he had no chance of being re-elected, stepped aside, and Mark Meadows won a hard-fought primary race to become our congressman.
Perhaps one of the reasons we are seeing such abysmal voter participation rates is because voters from the secondary party in any gerrymandered district know they have almost no voice in determining who will be elected to represent them in Congress.
To make matters worse, in a majority of these gerrymandered districts, party extremists control who gets nominated — and remember, anyone nominated from one of these districts is nearly guaranteed to win.
Because of gerrymandering, the majority of elected congressional representatives end up coming from districts controlled by either ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative extremists. They are left unable to compromise, and the frozen political debate in D.C. results.
Interestingly, while this partisan debate is happening, the majority of voters define themselves as middle-of-the-road moderate-centrists. However, they have almost no say in the nominating process for their party since they are rarely well organized, and so usually support the candidate chosen by their party's extremists.
I'm going to share an idea that would easily allow moderates to not only be heard but to actually kill the power of the extremists.
Remember, in the 300 or so gerrymandered districts, winning the primary of the party in power is the key to getting elected. Did you know that if you are registered as an independent, you can vote in either party's primary?
Today more than a quarter of American voters are registered as independent, and the number is growing steadily — mostly because so many people simply can't fully support either party.
Here's the simple strategy to help make real change in American politics:
If you are a moderate-centrist who is a member of the controlling party for your district, don't just go along with the crowd. Work to help nominate the most moderate candidate you can find. You would be even more effective by also registering as an independent to signal to party leaders that you are unhappy with them.
If you are registered as a member of the minority party in your district, change your registration to independent. Next — and here's a huge key to making change — vote in the opposing party's primary elections for the most moderate candidate.
Obviously, if you are already registered as an independent, make sure you vote to nominate the most moderate candidate for the party in power. If you are a moderate-centrist but not currently registered, please register as an independent and support moderate candidates of the party in power during primary elections.
Imagine the power that could be unleashed if the majority of moderate-centrist independent voters followed this strategy.
Imagine how it could change the behavior of current incumbents as they face the new challenge of speaking to this new powerful constituency that is larger than the extremist minority, whose directions they have been following.
Imagine the types of candidates who will surface in an environment in which their basic decency and desire to serve all of their constituents will be highly valued.
If this strategy were followed, when the next Republican primary rolls around for District 11 and all moderate voters are deciding on a candidate to support, how likely is it that the current tea party poster boy would be re-nominated?
It seems clear that the majority of moderate-centrists are very frustrated at the frozen partisan politics playing out in Washington. This partisan politics is being led by each party's extremist minority. This is moderate Americans' chance to be heard in ways that can actually force positive behavioral change in those we elect to represent our best interests.
Wouldn't it be refreshing and uplifting to hear candidates say they intend to represent the best interests of their moderate constituents instead of either the ultra-liberals or the ultra-conservatives? Wouldn't it be even better if they were elected, and their walk matched their talk?
It's up to each of us to take the first step by registering as independents, and then follow that up by voting in the primary for the most moderate candidate of the party in power during the primary election. This is action we can and must take if we are to have any chance of taking back control of our nation from the opposing extremists in both parties.
We've all seen how stubborn and unyielding the extremists can be. They won't back down willingly. So let us moderates join together and push them out of the way!
Mike Tower
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