In America, we have the Democratic Party, which can’t keep its hands off our wallets, and the Republican Party, which can’t keep its nose out of our personal lives. Each had its victories and defeats on Tuesday, but the real preference among voters is for a third party: one that is willing to live and let live.
This is a growing segment of the electorate. In the last 25 years, according to Bill Clinton’s pollster, Mark Penn, the percentage of people who agree with the statement “The best government is the government that governs least” has risen from 32 percent to 56 percent. But neither of the two major parties gives Americans a consistent choice between being governed more and being governed less.
So voters have to pick and choose from the available options. The clearest evidence of the “leave us alone” trend came from the states that voted on marijuana policy. In five referendums, citizens voted in favor of allowing the medical use of cannabis, despite the bitter opposition of die-hard prohibitionists from drug czar Barry McCaffrey on down. In Oregon, which has decriminalized marijuana use, voters also overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to make it a crime once again.
Arizonans, who saw their legislature try to overturn their 1996 vote for medical marijuana, thumpingly reaffirmed it. In the District of Columbia, where the same issue was on the ballot, the Republican Congress was so afraid of the results that it barred district officials from reporting the vote count.
Citizens of Washington state did something that may sound liberal when they approved letting patients use pot to cure ailments that don’t respond to conventional treatment. But they did something that is regarded as conservative by supporting a ban on racial and sexual preferences in government contracting and college admissions. What do the two positions have in common? Nothing, except a respect for the rights of the individual and a distrust of government power.
The same outlook found expression in the upset triumph of former professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura in the Minnesota gubernatorial race. He was running against Hubert H. Humphrey III, who in addition to having a golden Minnesota name had used his position as state attorney general to sue the tobacco industry.
Ventura talked about legalizing prostitution and drugs and respecting gay rights; Humphrey bragged about punishing an industry for selling people a legal product they choose to consume. Even in strait-laced Minnesota, the case for individual choice prevailed. Ventura got 37 percent of the vote, while Humphrey came in third with 28 percent.
Down in the Bible Belt, there were other surprises. Alabama is one of the most conservative and most Republican states in the country, but it has its limits. Voters there evicted Republican Gov. Fob James, who defended a judge’s display of the 10 Commandments in his courtroom and argued for restoring organized prayer in public schools. James had the endorsement of religious right leaders Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson, which may do him some good with St. Peter but failed to impress Alabamans. By a gaudy 16-point margin, they abandoned James for Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Siegelman.
Another favorite of the Christian Coalition was South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, a Republican who proclaimed his moral opposition to gambling, refused to allow a referendum on whether to establish a state lottery and tried to outlaw video poker. Despite being governor at a time when South Carolina is booming, and despite being a Republican in a Republican state, he was trounced by an unknown Democrat whose most potent campaign theme was that South Carolinians should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to allow these forms of gambling.
California Republican Matt Fong, who publicly endorsed a law banning anti-gay discrimination, looked like he had a very good chance of beating incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer. But then the news broke that he had made a $50,000 contribution to the Traditional Values Coalition, which is best known for opposing gay rights and urging the teaching of creationism in public schools. The connection was not a boon to Fong, who on Election Day found he was about as popular as an oil spill.
The most conspicuous Republican victors Tuesday were those with a reputation for independence from the party’s puritans and busybodies–George Bush in Texas, George Pataki in New York, George Ryan in Illinois. The ones who lost were those most closely identified with Newt Gingrich, who often sounds like he’s leading a jihad. Judging from this year’s results, the party that wins in the year 2000 will be the one that can portray itself as the party of freedom and tolerance–two traditional values that are still very much in style.
