The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current, November 04, 2018, Image 22

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The times., November 04, 2018, Image 22

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Newspaper Page TextOPINION ®he Srtttcs gainesvilletimes.com Sunday, November 4, 2018 Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Submit a letter: letters@gainesvilletimes.com The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. mm m mm AUVONB THAT Mores is a wmeRf JIM POWELL I For The Times EDITORIAL Election about so much more than next governor Ballot also includes many influential state positions So we know what Donald Trump thinks about the 2018 race for gov ernor of Georgia. And what Barack Obama thinks. And Mike Pence. And Oprah Winfrey. And a host of other politicians, celebrities and national political support groups. Truth is, over the past several weeks we’ve heard from a lot of peo ple insistent they are well enough informed to help those of us who live and work here decide who needs to be the state’s top elected official for the next four years. In a couple of days, the people of Georgia finally will have their voices heard, without the need for amplification nor translation by any national politician or celebrity campaigner. Truthfully, it will be a relief to see the polling places close on Tuesday to put an end to a long, expensive, loud and frequently pain ful election year. An end, that is, unless there is a runoff, in which case well have more days of apoplectic political ads and social media messages to wade through as a precursor to the Christ mas holidays. Oh joy. With Georgia as a battleground upon which Republicans and Demo crats from across the nation have fought a philosophical war, it is easy to forget that there is more at stake on Tuesday than a decision on who will live in the governor’s mansion. But Georgians this week will decide a lot more than just the state’s chief executive. Also included on the ballot are a number of other statewide offices that fill vital roles in the government, congressional races which will determine the balance of political power in the nation’s capital, state legislative races, local races and proposed constitutional amendments. What makes this year’s election especially intriguing is the slate of important state races that do not involve an incumbent office holder. Regardless of who wins, Georgia will have new faces in the offices of the lieutenant governor, secretary of state and insurance commissioner, as well as governor. In addition to those positions, voters on Tuesday will choose an attorney general, agricultural com missioner, labor commissioner, state school superinten dent and two members of the public service commission. The “down ballot” state officials are often overshadowed by the position of governor, but each has broad sweeping author ity and makes daily decisions that affect all Georgians. The lieutenant governor serves as president of the state senate, and would step in as governor if the elected governor were unable to serve for any reason; the attor ney general is the state’s top legal authority; the secretary of state oversees licensing of boards, regis tration of businesses, and the state’s election system; the insurance commissioner plays a major role in determining coverage requirements and rates; the labor commissioner helps keep the state’s economic engine running and oversees unem ployment funds; the agriculture commissioner sets policy that affects all those in Georgia’s massive ag industry; the PSC controls utility rates and service plans. While lesser known than the governor, each of these positions oversees the expenditure of mil lions of dollars in tax money, and supervises the state employees who work on your behalf. If you are not familiar with the candidates and are not among those thousands who took advantage of early voting, there’s still time to become informed so as to make an educated decision. Vote smart. Also on the election ballot are state legislative seats. Every two years, the terms of Georgia’s state House and Senate members expire so that those who hope for re-elec tion have to go before the voters again for approval. The same is true at the national level for members of I Election Day voting When: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 6 Where: Find your polling precinct at mvp.sos.ga.gov the U.S House, though U.S. Senators serve six year terms and don’t come before the voters as often. The reason for the relatively short terms for state legislators and Con gressmen is so that the voters are constantly given the opportunity to be heard on the issue of governance. If they like the direction their gov ernment is going, they can re-elect incumbents; if not, they can make a change. At the local level, some Hall County residents will be voting for a county commissioner, while all county voters will have a chance to fill two seats on the board of edu cation. There will also be a local referendum to allow Sunday brunch sales of alcohol in licensed establish ments in the county, and some cities will have a similar question for their residents. All Georgia voters will cast ballots on five proposed amendments to the state constitution, which address issues ranging from land conserva tion to victim’s rights, and two state wide referenda which poll public opinion but do not automatically become law. All in all, there are a lot of deci sions to be made on Tuesday beyond whether the cheering crowds at the gubernatorial victory party are wearing red shirts or blue shirts. The number of ballots cast dur ing early voting suggests an incred ible level of voter participation in this year’s election. If you haven’t already, please plan to cast a bal lot on Tuesday — but before you do, take advantage of the many resources available to become informed about the decisions you will be asked to make. Then Wednesday morning you can awake to the knowledge that whether your candidate won or lost, the election season is over — unless of course there is a runoff, in which case we may all be wearing out the mute button on the TV remote for another few weeks. 4* Online See all that’s on the Nov. 6 ballot online at gainesvilletimes.com/ news/whats-on-the- ballot-nov-6-2018/ Wednesday morning you can awake to the knowledge that whether your candidate won or lost, the election season is over — unless of course there is a runoff, in which case we may all be wearing out the mute button on the TV remote for another few weeks. Maybe the US just wants a parliamentary system instead Americans, God bless 'em, revere the Consti tution even if they disagree on what it says. Heck, they revere the Constitution even when they don’t know what it says. More than a third of Americans surveyed by the Annenberg Cen ter for Public Policy in 2017 couldn’t name a sin gle freedom enumerated in the First Amendment. Only 26 percent could name all three branches of government, and 33 percent couldn’t name a single branch. But they love the Consti tution nonetheless. The thing is, the Con stitution isn’t magic. Its power derives from the power we invest in it. In the 19th century, a bunch of Latin American countries were inspired by the U.S. and borrowed heavily from our presidential system (as opposed to the par liamentary system). It’s a complicated story — stories, actually — but suffice it to say, it didn’t work out. Different people, different cultures, different expectations. Our system was designed for the people on the ground, and even then we’ve made a whole bunch of modifications since 1789. For instance, the president and vice president were originally the first and second finishers in the election. That mistake was corrected with the 12th amendment in 1804. The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments rectified the moral stain of slavery (at least formally). The 17th amendment required that senators be elected by voters, not state legislatures. The 19th amendment allowed women to vote. In other words, we’ve been shedding the small-r republican character of the Constitution, which balanced the small-d democratic part. This can get confusing, but the first thing to keep in mind is that the capital-letter Republican and Democratic parties are not particularly repre sentative of either perspective. As Randy Barnett explains in “Our Repub lican Constitution,” both traditions celebrate “We the People.” But for the small d-democrats, “We the People” translates as the “Will of the People.” For small-r republicans, the Constitu tion is there to protect the inalienable rights of the sovereign individuals who make up We the People. In a proper republic, leaders are elected, but they are responsible for protecting the constitutional order even when the will of the people demands otherwise. Both parties have small r-republicans and small d-democrats in them. And both parties tend to emphasize whichever perspective ben efits them in a given moment. But there’s an additional problem with the republican tradition in America. Whereas it once spoke to the idea that leaders might have to defy the will of the people to protect our rights, today it also manifests itself as a kind of aristocratic elitism. Officials defy both individual rights and the will of the people for our “own good.” From Woodrow Wilson’s “war socialism” to the New Deal and the Great Society, elected officials did what they thought was right, heedless of democratic or republican restraints. Whether these were good policies is beside the point. The TARP bailout started by George W. Bush and continued by Barack Obama was probably nec essary, but the Constitution and public opinion were afterthoughts. If Donald Trump tries to repeal birthright citizenship by executive order, it would be unconstitutional and undemocratic, even if you think it’s the correct policy. And that brings me to the parliamentary tide. In parliamentary systems, the people elect par ties and the parties elect their leaders. The ever- widening gyre of partisan polarization seems to be pushing us toward that kind of system. Demo crats vote “blue,” Republicans “red.” Trump and the Democrats want the mid terms to be a referendum on him. Democrats increasingly spew venom at the Senate as undemocratic because big states and small alike get the same number of senators. During the mail-bomb episode, congressional party leaders issued joint GOP and Democratic statements, whereas traditionally leaders would issue bipar tisan statements from each body of Congress. In short, voters and politicians alike are behaving as if we live under a different system than the one in the Constitution. Why? I have too many guesses to list here, but among the top suspects: a failure to teach civics, a break down of civil society and the institutions that traditionally keep politics local, and the increas ing tendency of people to see politics as their “identity.” I think all of these trends are calamitous, and not just because I’m a constitutionalist. There’s no reason to believe that even if we redesigned the Constitution along parliamentary lines the people would be satisfied. Parliamentary sys tems aren’t any better at fixing such problems. A parliamentary system might just be a way station on our descent to an even uglier form of zero-sum politics. Jonah Goldberg is an editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. JONAH GOLDBERG goldbergcolumn@ gmail.com (the (Times Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com EDITORIAL BOARD General Manager Norman Baggs Editor in Chief Shannon Casas To submit letters: Send by email to letters@ gainesvilletimes.com or use the contact form at gainesvilletimes.com. Include name, hometown and phone number; letters never appear anonymously. Letters are limited to one per writer in a month’s time on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit 500 words). Letters may be rejected from readers with no ties to Northeast Georgia or that address personal, business or legal disputes. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters and commentary express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times.