California's Top Two Primary and the Challenge of Making Real Change

Abstract

California’s Top Two Primary and the Challenge of Making Real Change Sharon Cornu Imagine you are reading an article online—maybe this one—and you come to the end. Im- mediately below flash alarming photos and headlines about belly fat, mortgage rates, and cat videos. They call that clickbait. It’s how I feel about the Top Two: it’s not going to improve your health, your finances or your productivity. The Top Two is reform of our political system in the same way that clickbait ads are reform of your lifestyle. We’re talking about California’s “jungle” primary, which sends the top two vote-getters in a primary regardless of party registration to the November general election. It’s just as bad as eve- ryone predicted for three reasons. First, it allows reporters to use the word “jungle” in political coverage, which is disturbing. Second, it often requires candidates to double their fundraising, increasing the influence of money in politics. Third, arguing about the Top Two takes up time and resources that could be spent actually fixing our political system. Like many other proposed and implemented reforms, it fails to address the real cause of our political problems and points us down a rabbit hole—like a clickbait ad leading to an unending series of cat videos. You’ve noticed that I ignored proponents’ main argument: bridging our political divide by electing moderates. Supporters of the Top Two system argued it would elect more moderate can- didates, and more moderate candidates would solve our current crises. They would act nice, so- cialize together, and compromise. They would usher in the Shangri-la era of legislative accom- plishment. Hogwash. The crisis in Washington and Sacramento is caused not by equivalent polarization, e.g., by two political parties moving equally to their respective corners. It’s caused by the Repub- lican Party falling off a far-right cliff and too many (not all, but too many) Democrats trying to balance them by moving right themselves. Paddle a little on the left, paddle a little on the right may work in calm waters, but it’s dan- gerous when the water is rough. Turbulent waters demand bold strokes, which historically come from the people, not politicians. The movie Selma, today’s #BlackLivesMatter movement, Fight for $15 and Our WalMart campaigns remind us that it’s street heat by people that leads leaders to change. We need change: we’re scared, and rightly so, that extreme wealth has overcome democratic ideals. We’re scared that corporate interests budget for buying legislation like acquiring property. After Obama, we’re scared about the world’s greatest democracy having the world’s lowest voter turnout.