With the rush of national election primaries upon us, a buzz of excitement is in the air about who will replace President Obama in the Oval Office. Will it be an extreme conservative Republican or will the honor go to a far-left liberal Democrat? This intense political race has revealed that very few of our nation’s millennials have chosen not to be members any of the political parties. In fact, a 2014 Pew Research Center analysis found that 48 percent of millennial voters identify as Independents. One reason for this may be that the two major political parties have been taken over by politicians with extreme messages that suit neither moderate liberals nor conservatives.
America’s political atmosphere can be described as very charged today. The Democratic and Republican parties have become extremely polarized with their agendas in the past decade. The Republican side has been taken over by the ultra-conservative evangelicals preaching a regressive message while the Democrats have focused on the disparity between rich and poor, advocating for a complete overhaul of our political and economic system.
Meanwhile, people with moderate beliefs on both sides do not find these messages very appealing and are not keen to identify with either party. As a result, they register as independent voters who are not tied down to any one party, conservative or liberal.
I believe this shift is a pretty good idea because it allows voters to choose the candidate they prefer whether or not he or she is affiliated with a particular party. No one should be tied down or obligated to one political philosophy; people ought to have the opportunity to explore different opinions and policies. Independents have the option to step back and look at all the beliefs of both parties and decide who deserves their votes.
But America’s election process presents a considerable challenge for the independent faction. Eleven of our nation’s primaries and caucuses are closed, which means that in order to vote in those primaries, you need to be a registered member of one of the two parties. This unfairly excludes independents’ valuable votes and discourages them from coming out to the elections. Therefore, voter turnout in those state primaries would be lower than other states. I feel that with the rise of people identifying as independents, every state caucus should be open, meaning that independents can vote too. That way, everyone has the opportunity to take advantage of the sacred right to vote whenever and wherever.
Consider the primary last month in New York State. Because it is a closed primary, 2.9 million independent voters were shut out of the process. Hillary Clinton won that primary 57.95 to Bernie Sanders’ 42.1 percent. Had independents been able to vote, those results would have looked a lot different.
Allowing independents to participate in all primaries would not only help improve voter turnout for all elections, it will help the two parties become less polarized. During the primaries, candidates in both factions typically appeal to the hardliners because they are the ones who vote in the caucuses while the independents, many of whom are more moderate, cannot always participate. The prevalence of far-right and far-left opinions and a lack of moderate voices causes the parties to become further and further divided over the issues until the gulf between them cannot be crossed. Perhaps if we tried harder to include the independents in the primary elections, the candidates’ hardline attitudes would be replaced by more moderate “catch-all” messages that others in the party could agree with. That way, every person in every group would have something and someone to vote for.
The rise in independent millennial voters is a very welcome change. But these people are often disenfranchised during the primary process. Opening up primaries to independent voters would challenge the highly polarized political environment and encourage everyone to really think about their beliefs. Our government should rework the whole election process so that everyone can vote in any election regardless of affiliation, which is what our Founding Fathers strived to provide for us.
