State Sen. Andrew Dinniman,
D-West Chester, is pushing for a bill that would make school board elections
nonpartisan. Perhaps the senator still believes in the Tooth Fairy.
Yes, there are elections in
various states that are nonpartisan, but it’s difficult to image that happening
here where partisanship — even in school board elections — is the expected norm.
It would be nice to think that
it could happen here. Yet, consider the fact that in a truly nonpartisan
election, someone other than a Democrat or Republican could get into office.
The powers that be, left and right, won’t allow for that to happen.
Think not? The former head of
the Chadds Ford Democratic party said that he was glad the Republicans kept
Libertarian candidates for office off the ballot in 2010. Peter Jesson said all
third party candidates should be off the ballot because Ralph Nader siphoned
votes from Al Gore in 2000, which led to the election of George Bush as
president.
Even school
board candidate Frank Murphy — an incumbent Republican likes to think that once
elected, a school board director is dealing with students to be educated, not Republican
or Democrat students, just students — opposes the change in law. He added that
Mr. Dinniman’s efforts would be better served in attempts to reduce taxes and
the cost of education.
We agree
with Mr. Murphy as far as he went. It could also be said that there should be
no Democrat law or Republican law, no Libertarian or Green Party law either,
just law. Laws are — or at least should be — the same for all people regardless
of race, creed or political affiliation. So why have parties in the first place?
George
Washington cautioned against political parties way back when, but the country
failed to heed that warning.
Despite its
quixotic and apple-pie nature, however, we wish Mr. Dinniman some luck in his
endeavor. It would be interesting to see what people would do when hats in the
ring have no party label on them.
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