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You cannot be a Dem or a Repub pol and survive a primary reliably without hewing to certain ideological precepts - there are notable exceptions, Cuellar of Texa
by Aloha 4y ago
You cannot be a Dem or a Repub pol and survive a primary reliably without hewing to certain ideological precepts - there are notable exceptions, Cuellar of Texas and Collins (to a lesser extent) for example - Even with them, hewing too far outside of the ideological precepts your voters have will find you losing a primary.
The real root of most issues with our system is the primary, This could be remedied by either getting rid of primaries entirely - or introducing fusion voting, either solution would solve the drive to ideological purity during the primary cycle.
- dragonwriter 4y ago> The real root of most issues with our system is the primary, No, it is the single-winner FPTP general, particularly for seats in legislative bodies. This has been studied fairly extensively in comparative government, the narrow range of choices is the product of a system that effectively avoids proportionality by favoring a narrow range of outcomes. “Primaries” aren't the problem, and most solutions that try to avoid them or reform them while retaining the real source of the problem would either have no effect or actually further reduce meaningful choice.
- Aloha 4y agoLow turnout for primaries produces non majoritarian choices, while I'm interested in proportional representation systems but who picks the candidates? Also, realistically we vote too often, and on too many things - the last time I voted, I had no less than 26 offices to vote for, I'm a reasonably well informed voter, and I had no idea who 3/4's of those people are and in some cases, what their office did. I'm if the opinion we don't need more choice, when so few people show up to do the choosing. Im interested on your ideas to solve it.