It's time for a reality check ...

Maybe – for once – California does have a better idea

Okay, we all make fun of some of the nutty ideas that come out of California. 

But its recent changes in how primaries are decided may have some merit. 

In short, California primaries are now open – which means everybody, regardless of party – votes on all the candidates.  The top two vote-getters face off in the general election. 

Coupled with non-partisan redistricting, it's changing the whole political landscape in California, especially on selection of House members.    

There are no gerrymandered “safe” seats anymore.  And it’s now quite possible to have two candidates from the same party get the most number of votes and have to run against each other.  In fact, that’s happening now in at least 9 California Congressional districts. The old codgers and dinosaurs face extinction.  

You can thank Prop 14, approved by California voters in 2010.  It prohibited political parties from nominating candidates in a primary for Congressional or state elective office, although they could endorse or oppose a candidate.  And it doesn't apply to Presidential races. 

Instead, voters choose who gets nominated -- the top two -- without regard to party. 

To say I love this would be an understatement. 

Think about it for a minute … 

Both the Republican and Democrat parties are broken.  They've each been co-opted by their most radical elements.  Anybody who doesn't accept 100% of their dogma – anyone who has a more moderate view on one issue or another – is a traitor to those bases. 

So if you’re a Democrat who is generally liberal but a bit more conservative on some social and fiscal issues, there’s no place for you.  If you’re a Republican who doesn't toe the hardest party line on abortion, gay marriage and immigration, there’s no place for you either.    

Neither party actually represents us because we’re usually somewhere in the middle on most issues.  We’re not ideologues; just regular folks going about the business of our lives.   We don’t draw such harsh lines.  But the Republican and Democrat parties do, to their detriment. 

That’s why we have so little respect for the current parties, and the candidates they endorse.  And why so many people are now registered as independents.  When the general elections roll around most of us really do try to choose the person we think will do the best job. 

Or, if we’re forced to, the person likely to do the least amount of harm. 

Unfortunately, even those choices are severely limited by who makes it through the primaries.  Which is why the open primary idea has so much merit.   

We all know that most primaries are now decided by the fanatical extremists of each party.  That’s how a wannabe witch like Christy O’Donnell and a nut job like Todd “legitimate rape” Akin get their party’s nod over more experienced, and less compromised, candidates; candidates who would probably win in the general election by getting support from a broader base. 

It’s also how 80-year-old Pete Stark of California – described as “left of Lenin” – has managed to get re-elected to the House 19 times in a previously gerrymandered district, usually without any credible opposition.   

Well now Pete has an opponent – actually another Democrat who is only 31 years old – to worry about.  And his district now includes many more moderates than ever before – not just hard core lefties.  He could very well lose this time around. 

We can all thank Prop 14 for it. 

It would be great to see this idea gain ground across the nation.  If we could get redistricting out of the hands of politicians at the same time – and maybe simply decide districts on neutral grounds, like geography and population – so much the better.