Dennis Tuuri

Full PEAPAC Analysis

PEAPA C Explanation: If enacted, this Measure would radically change the way our elections are conducted. Some of those changes have merit.

Positive Considerations: George Washington, in his Farewell Address warned against the emerging party system. “It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration….agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one….against another….it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption…thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.” How prophetic these words have turned out to be! The current rancor coming from the dominant two parties is just plain disgusting and highly unproductive. All public policy matters are now primarily discussed from a partisan political perspective, with the appropriate spin applied. And it seems very wrong that our taxes pay for private political party primaries. Most people haven’t even thought about the fact that their taxes fund the Democrat and Republican Party primaries, at great cost to the taxpayer.

The Bible almost always treats party-spirit or partisanship with disapproval. In I Cor. 1:10-13 Paul condemns the Corinthians party-spirit, which they seem to have picked up from Greek political philosophy. Paul links their party spirit to pride, selfishness, and a denial of grace. Paul’s corrective to the Corinthians included using the term “Chris t” (denoting Jesus as Messiah and King) ten times in the first ten verses of this epistl e. All political parties in Oregon deny what the Reformers used to call “The Crown Rights of King Jesus.” As such, these parties are all prideful, engage in vain-glory, and end up using sinful rhetoric and produce not peace but contention. From a pragmatic perspective, the two party system has done little to stop a continual drift to an ever more left-ward course. When the crown rights of Jesus are rejected, a port-side list to the ship of state seems inevitable. Add to this the fact that the Bible stresses personal character qualifications for elected officials (Ex. 18:21; Dt. 1:13; Acts 6:3) rather than issue orientation and one feels strongly inclined to support this Measure.

Negative Considerations: But when a ballot measure advocates such a radical change, caution is appropriate. This is particularly true when the proposed change is the way we elect those who will govern many aspects of our lives. The law of unintended consequences cannot always be avoided. But in this case, we can watch and learn from Washington State, which has adopted a similar system. Along these lines, it should be noted that liberals and progressives are generally touting these sorts of changes in primaries. In California a similar system was used by Democrats to erode conservative influence in their Legislature. The Washington state system was passed into law by a heavily Democratic Legislature. And Oregon’s Measure is being touted by some prominent progressives and leftists, typically no friends of the Christian voter. We are admonished to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Mt. 10:16). It seems the course of wisdom and safety is to vote No on this Measure. But we should also commit to step boldly and loudly into conversations and dialogue about the folly of our present secular two party system.