Our existing primary system is a disaster

Posted

Editor,

The recent dustup in both political parties regarding the primary election system has caused me to rethink my position on this. 

In the first place, I was absolutely gobsmacked by the blatant confession of many party leaders that it is “they” who pick the candidate, not we, the voters. This makes the primary system, and by extension the entire election process, a sham. It’s all smoke and mirrors, a parlor trick designed to give people the false impression that their voice is the one that counts, after all, it is a democracy, right? Right? However, the truth is out now, and it isn’t good, the party has the final say, and people like me, are waking up to this and asking questions, andthat’s always dangerous for the party apparatchik. They need to keep the “people” in a stupor; awareness, sensibility, is the last thing they want.   

Our system may have been well suited to a by-gone era, but that’s irrelevant now. If we are to truly have an open, fair, election process, i.e., a Republican Democracy, as it was intended, then we have to have it all the way from the beginning to end, bottom to the top. 

It’s silly to pretend that we have an open, fair system when the proles only get to vote on the slate handed to them by the party’s back room boys, or girls. One particular pundit, this one a Republican, even said on Fox News that the game has always been played this way, and it was the responsibility of the candidates to play it well, as if that makes everything okay. The fact is our existing system is wide open to manipulation, corruption, and the current debacle in both parties only proves it. 

Just as a side note, this is how they exercise their “democracy” in China: The people only get to vote on the slate of candidates put forward by the party. I’m not saying we’re as far gone as that, but the principle applies. 



This is not a constitutional issue, like the Electoral College, this is purely the result of party politicians gaming the system. It’s as plain as that.

This may be just one letter from one little person, but don’t underestimate it, sometimes little things turn into big things.  

Jim Roth

Ridgefield