Letter to the editor: UNI marketing professor endorses Libertarians

1
984

To the editor:

George Washington, America’s first president, warned citizens a two-party political system would permit elected officials and citizens to exhibit isolationist behavior versus bipartisanship. Political actions have indeed become destructive.

Americans are fed up with immature divisiveness. The Republicans have gone too far right-wing conservative, and Democrats have become too wacko-liberal. The majority of Americans are near the middle of the political spectrum, far removed from elected officials.

In this election cycle, voters will witness seven state Senate candidates and 19 Iowa House of Representative candidates who are neither Democrat or Republican. I contacted these 26 individuals with one question: Why are you running for office unaffiliated with a major party?

The common response was: “Our current two-party system favors special interests, lobbyists, even the politicians’ personal interests rather than the voters, while compromising principle and skirting accountability.”

From 2006 to 2010, the Iowa House had six registered Democrats who were fiscally conservative, pro-business, individual-rights advocates, centrists and brokers of bipartisanship. They may have been Iowa’s first undeclared independents who truly represented their 30,000 constituents as they did not follow the party line or bow to lobbyists.

They became known as the Six Pack. They were McKinley Bailey of Webster City, Geri Huser of Altoona, Doris Kelley of Cedar Falls, Larry Merek of Riverside; Dolores Mertz of Algona and Brian Quirk of New Hampton.

This was a time when the Democrats controlled Iowa’s House, Senate and governor’s office. The House held 56 Democrats and 44 Republicans. Knowing it takes 51 votes to pass a bill, these six legislators garnered a lot of attention.

Since the Six Pack did not follow the party line, House Majority Leader Patrick Murphy (D-Dubuque) didn’t support their reelection and threw them under the bus. Only one was reelected. The Republicans took over the Iowa House in 2010, and the Democrats went from 56 to 44 seats. Many Democrats said supporting the Six Pack would have been a much wiser decision.

Slowly but surely, we have institutionalized partisanship, even within political parties. Since straight-ticket voting is practiced by 75 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans and hostility toward the other party prevails, we have no one to blame for today’s separation of the political waters but ourselves.

What could we do to have a better chance of selecting bipartisan and honorable politicians?

Let’s revisit Iowa Senate File 2235 and not be afraid of transparency. This campaign finance bill passed in the Senate March 14, 2012. It made all campaign contributions subject to public reporting. Iowa’s Republican-controlled House refused to advance the bill.

Examine each candidate’s work history, especially noting job hopping or holding each job for only one to two years — a precursor to a weak candidate.

If politicians and candidates skip out on even one public forum or debate, kick the bums out. They don’t want to be held accountable.

Fact check candidates’ policy positions, campaign ads and brochures — much of their verbiage is misleading. Request media to report political forum absenteeism and issue fact check alerts to the public.

Listening to Iowa’s 26 non-mainstream candidates may reveal something big, such as an independent viewpoint and a unique ideological platform.

On Nov. 8, don’t overlook the 26 independent-minded candidates: Seth Bartmess, Bob Boyle, Dan Brantz, Garrett Byrd, Brian Cook, Eric Cooper, Dave Cork, John Evans, Jocelyn Fry, John George, Joe Gleason, Troy Hageman, Dan Kelley, Ryan Ketelsen, Mike Knox, David Melchert, Jeffrey Meyers, Joshua Miller, Brett Nelson, John Patterson, Nick Serianni, Ruth Smith, Nick Taiber, Jeremy Tomlinson, Christopher Whiteing and Jeff VanDerWerff.

Steve Corbin
Cedar Falls

1 COMMENT

  1. A Libertarian is nothing more than a failed Republican. Weak and ineffectual government is the problem and not the solution. As for the Democrats, if you think today’s crop of Dems are true liberals or progressives, you apparently don’t know what a liberal is. The truth is there is really very little difference between the two parties concerning economic and international affairs, though there is some difference on social issues such as gay and women’s rights. Still, the latter differences are more cosmetic than not. The two-party system is more akin to a pro-wrestling scam than not. It’s all just an act. Still, I applaud the Libertarians for their attempts to break up the two-headed beast of a system. As for myself, I’m voting for Jill Stein.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.