Alabama Congressman Calls for Formation of Independent Party

Artur Davis is an outgoing Democratic Congressman from Alabama, representing the state's 7th congressional district, who opted not to seek reelection this year.  In a commentary for the Montgomery Advertiser, Davis argues that the two-party system effectively results in a one-party state, wherein the ruling power seeks nothing other than the consolidation and expansion of its grip on power.  Davis thus calls for the formation of a state-level Independent Party to "recruit and sustain candidates in targeted statewide and legislative races," because only such a movement has real "potential to advance Alabama in ways that are impossible under the constraints of partisan politics."  Excerpts:

For the hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who believe our state is capable of fundamentally changing the way we govern ourselves and the way we educate our children, and who desire a politics that is not anchored to special interest groups, there is a powerful case for an independent movement in time for the 2014 elections.This movement, which would recruit and sustain candidates in targeted statewide and legislative races, has the potential to advance Alabama in ways that are impossible under the constraints of partisan politics. . . .

Its principles would include an overhaul of a tax system that privileges out of state and absentee interests at the expense of low-income wage earners; the redrafting of a constitution that centralizes too much authority in the hands of the Legislature rather than local communities; the adoption of incentives that will empower entrepreneurship and high tech development; and reinvesting in our universities rather than demonizing them as elitist rivals to our K-12 system . . .

There are all kinds of reasons independent or third party movements have crashed and burned at the national level, most notably an Electoral College that effectively marginalizes candidates outside the two party system and the vast expense of a 50-state campaign apparatus. But in the narrower confines of a state of 4.5 million people, where a plurality of the vote can win, the course is infinitely more plausible and affordable.