More on elections and voting

Last week I received my absentee ballot for the mid-term elections. As I perused the ballot, which contained elections for about thirty offices, I noticed something that I did not expect. Only three of the races had candidates from the two major parties. The overwhelming percentage of offices only had candidates from one of the major parties, the Democratic Party to be specific. I came to realize that our discussion of a few weeks back on Catholics, voting, and voting guides did not address very much, if at all, this circumstance that I have just encountered. How does any voter, including the Catholic voter, deal with an election in which there is no opposition. I suppose this is what happens in totalitarian regimes where voters have no choice. But, the United States is a democracy, is it not? I then began to wonder if the time has come to consider the possibility of reevaluating the current “two party” system. In particular, I have started to think about the likelihood of members of the laity forming an American version of the Christian Democratic Party. Would there be Constitutional prohibitions against such an institution or not? I am curious what other MOJ participants and readers might think about such a proposal. In the meantime, I continue to reflect on the meaning of my voice in American politics that was dramatically affected by the ballot I received.   RJA sj