The recent Nevada and National elections provide an opportunity for a perspective aside from commenting on the individual wins and losses.
The founders of this country, in reaction to the dominance of a faraway absolute monarch, a colonial experience and a revolutionary war, created a government unique in the history of mankind.
The solution to their complaints against the tyranny of absolutism was a limited government with three co-equal branches; executive, judicial and legislative so that power could not be concentrated in one or two branches over the others.
This election resulted in a fundamental change in Nevada’s Legislature reflecting the founder’s original intent. Prior to the election the Nevada State Assembly had what is known as a super-majority. This means that house could pass new taxes and could override the Governor’s veto of one of their bills.
The Nevada Senate needed one more Democrat Senator to achieve the same super-majority status. The common pre-election wisdom was the Assembly would retain their status and the Senate could pick up its needed seat. The result of this outcome would have been a complete dominance by one political party in this state.
However, the Republicans flipped three seats in the Assembly and gained one seat in the Senate. Thus, even though the Democrats control both houses of the Legislature and Governor Sisolak is a Democrat, some balance has been restored and the two parties will have to work together to solve some of Nevada’s pressing problems caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.
Nationally, it appears the Senate will remain narrowly controlled by the Republican Party, which again means the voters have expressed a desire for a balanced government.
Therefore, as reflected in the 2020 election results, one unintended consequence of the founder’s vision to create a limited government might also be a voter instinct that favors a balanced system of compromise, conservative action and limitations inherent in each of the co-equal branches of our unique government, which militates against complete dominance by one faction over another.
