The emergence of a three (or maybe even four) party system

I am not going to wade into the political waters of Delaware too much beyond making a simple observation that maybe this debate between Markell and Carney should go beyond this upcoming "primary." Given the numbers of people that vote in primaries generally, is whoever gets selected truly going to be a so-called "representative" candidate? If the answer is no, there is no reason why either candidate should defer to the up and down vote a fraction of Delawareans will give in what will amount to be a worthless endeavor in basic democracy. Heck, even the teacher's union says they both are qualified.

What is far more interesting, and what should happen (although it will not), is that Markell and Carney should both be listed as candidates along with Lee and Protack (to the extent he is a viable candidate) and then see how the votes play out. The downside is that Markell and Carney split the vote and Lee wins the office. The upside, however, is that the will of the majority wins. While I acknowledge the downside scares people (although for no good reason), I think it's far more likely that one candidate will get a near majority of the vote, leaving one candidate to emerge as the true governor pursuant to the vote of the people. And even if it does wind up being one person by virtue of a split vote, is that really a bad thing? I submit the answer is a resounding no.

The time is coming where we need to start thinking more about the worth of keeping the existing two-party system when neither really purports to stand under its founding principles. In all reality, Delaware is a fairly conservative state by political standards, and whether people label themselves as Democrat or Republican has not caused the sky to fall or the corporate revenue to drop. The same will happen regardless of who the governor is.

Admittedly, I will have to give this new party system some more thought. There are some writings about it, but not very many. The threat of one party dissolving certainly can be real, and perhaps on the national level, the threat is past conception. Regardless, one thing is clear: the system we have now needs some sort of upgrade. Perhaps letting the Delaware governor race proceed in a three- or four-way run isn't such a bad thing.

Tags: three party system