In order to have a two-party system, one must first have two parties

I've cleaned up the Sidebar today, getting rid of all the judicial candidates, winners and otherwise, except where primary winners face an opponent on the November ballot. That leaves, if you look, four names -- two candidates competing for the one 12th Subcircuit vacancy, two others for the vacancy in the 13th Subcircuit.

All the rest, countywide and subcircuit, Appellate and Supreme Court, all Democrats, are unopposed. Voters who missed the Democratic Primary in March are once again precluded from having any say in who serves as a judge in Cook County.

That's a great relief for all but two of the winners of judicial races in the March Democratic Primary -- but it may not be the best thing for the country as a whole.

It's not just in judicial races that there are no contests. Nationwide, according to Ballotpedia, over a third of all state legislative seats in the 44 states holding legislative elections this November are uncontested. Democrats will automatically win 17.9% of all state legislative races because there are no Republican candidates, and Republicans will automatically win 17.3% of all races because there are no Democrats.

In Illinois, again according to Ballotpedia, 11 of 20 State Senate seats are uncontested (only Democrats are running in eight of these, Republicans in the other three). Meanwhile, in the 118 Illinois House races, 53 Democrats are running without Republican opposition, while 16 Republicans are running with no Democratic opponent.

Does this absence of competition demonstrate harmony and consensus between the parties, reflecting an unprecedented era of good feelings? If you answered this question in the affirmative, you need to scale back your visits to legal cannabis dispensaries.

The absence of meaningful competition is not healthy for our country, and the problem is clearly not going away any time soon. But creative map-making is a skill that no party in power will willingly cede.