Comment & Debate
George Will. “Proposition California ensures electoral blandness.” Washington Post. June 13th, 2010: “But, then, blandness is the point of this reform. It seeks to generate a homogenized political class, one not lumpy with liberals and conservatives who, being conviction politicians, do not always play well with others. […] Does America need a cure for ‘partisanship,’ the supposed disease of leaders such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson at the birth of America’s party system? Does America need a nominating process that narrows choices by stacking the deck against minor parties? Does it need a process that produces ‘pragmatic’ candidates who, because they have no ballast of ‘ideology,’ a.k.a ideas, and are not rendered ‘rigid’ by convictions, can ‘reach across the aisle’ to achieve compromises congenial to the entire political class? Does America need a nominating process that, suppressing candid partisanship, will tempt stealthy partisans to game the system by voting a weak candidate into the top two?”