Here in the Texas Panhandle, most of the November elections have been concluded. As of April 11, all but one county level office will have been decided.

The reason? The Democrats have completely given up on the Texas Panhandle. They're not even running PAPER candidates for office, they've ceded the region altogether.

The problem is, this is not the only area in the United States where this is the case. And while it's not just the Democrats who are doing it, they seem to be the more prominent ones in adopting the mantra of hopelessness. The problem is, we as the voters suffer.

You see, the GOP in our area is so tight that you can't work your way up through the ranks to become an effective challenger to their selected candidates. Their candidates are chosen in board rooms and lodge meetings ling before any filing deadline begins. Without an effective opposing party, then, the candidates are selected rather than elected.

This is NOT our democratic process. This is NOT the America the founding fathers envisioned. In fact, if this were happening in another country, we'd be taking a hard look at their system of democracy.

I have long said that, in red states, the Libertarian Party is a more viable second party than the Democrat party. And I believe it. The problem is, draconian ballot access restrictions in many of these states often prohibit parties like the Libertarian Party from taking a place in the electoral process, even when they've proven themselves to be viable.

As I'm finishing up the conventions required to place my name on the ballot in November, I'm grateful that someone already went through the petitioning process for me so that I don't have to work the streets gathering signatures, as Kinky Friedman and Carolyn Keeton Strayhorn are now doing in the governor's race. But I have to wonder how long we will continue to preserve a party's spot on the ballots when it has continually expressed no interest in retaining it.