Lame, Halt and Crippled American System
In observing today’s broken, painfully limping electoral system, BuzzSawMonkey notes that:
“That’s only part of it.
Are the MSM to blame? Yes, in part–but running hysterically after the “winners” of each contest is what they do.
First: The primary system should be drastically overhauled. There should be four national primaries, each of which contains a mix of Northern and Southern, Eastern and Western, large-population and small-population states. That way none of the early primaries would be dispositive, because they would contain a mix of people from different areas and with different interests.
Second: There should be no crossover voting. Primaries are for the purpose of parties choosing party nominees. No independents, and no members of the other party, should be permitted to muddy the choice of those who have made a commitment to a party and its principles.
Third: Anyone who quits after one or two primaries should not be mourned. You’ve got to have staying power to be President. If you can’t take the adversity of one or two bad showings under the current drastically flawed system, goodbye and good riddance. You don’t have the stuff for the job.
Fourth: “Electability” is always a code-word for “loser.” It didn’t work for John Kerry, did it? You nominate the person the people in the party (no crossovers or independents) want, then you go for the election with all you’ve got. Anything else is selling out to the other side.”
Do these sound like BS to you? or a rational suggestion at improving, modernizing our once-great American electoral system?
Loading ...
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Excellent ideas all! This is the first presidential election in decades where the candidates actually care about California. We used to have a late primary so the nominees were chosen by the time we got to vote. That also has a lot to do with why voter turnout in California has been so low - our votes really haven’t mattered.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Amen. And to add to that — all primary elections should happen on the same day! My state’s primary is still a month away and every year the candidate I favor has already dropped out. There’s no point in even bothering with a primary if there’s only one name on the ballot.
The staggered election is kept in place because it give the party leadership and establishment power. All states voting at the same time would remove that power. Let (s)he with the most votes win.
On a contrarian point, I’m thrilled to see this much frustration with the primary election process. I hope that someday it will lead to the rise of a viable third party that respects the voters.
February 9th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Jack, while I would like to see a viable third party, I don’t see how one could BE viable unless they play the same games as the two current parties. The D’s and R’s make the rules - to be a competitive a third party would have to play along.
And there’s the problem.