Vanity - Should The GOP Consider Moving Towards Caucuses And Away From Primaries?

I have always been a fan of a close primary with a 24 hour Election Day.

For the general, I wish it was a holiday and again, 24 hours—across the nation, opening and closing at the same “time” so that everyone opens and closes together.

Then you don’t have to do mail in crap.

The Republicans have a mix of primaries and caucuses, along with a few conventions, mostly because the selection of delegates to the national convention is made at the state level subject to certain rules laid down by the Republican National Committee.

The first four states ... Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada ... are relatively small, spread around the country, and two of these are caucuses and two are primaries. In these and other early states, delegates are chosen by proportional representation. These states are supposed to give a lot of opportunity for candidates to prove themselves.

After these first several states, contests mostly turn into winner-takes-all. The later states are supposed to quickly close the deal and get us to a decision.

These rules weren’t written for Trump and against him, but to work in any year. No. They’re not perfect, but what in this life is.

If you want to change the rules, I suggest getting with your state Republican organization. Link up with like-minded Republicans. Be there, year in and year out, and work at it, together with others.

Trump, as the leader of the party, has or would have a lot of influence. He showed up and joined our party in 2016. During his presidency, his appointments and nominations were hit and miss, both for the government itself and for the party (however, he did a very good job with his judicial nominations).

As for us, we’re going to try real hard to elect a President, a Senate and a House of Representatives, to elect Governors, state legislators, and local office holders from county boards of supervisors to school board members. Our problem isn’t Trump or his people, but the other party. That party uses our tax dollars to trap people into lives of dependency and cheats in elections every way they can.

Thanks for the post. There’s not too much that I disagree with except to qualify your contention that our problem is the other party. Unfortunately the problem is bigger than just the other party. Whether one chooses to look at it through the lens of the Uniparty or in terms of the two party system, the fact is that the Democrats have gained much of the power they currently possess because of the complicity of the Republican establishment.

Any return of government to the people will have to include returning the party apparatus to the people. We should all consider ways that that can be accomplished, whether it’s through more caucuses, less caucus, or some other combination of reforms.

Anything to eliminate crossover voting by Dems. They came out en mass in South Carolina in 2008 and destroyed Fred Thompson’s campaign by voting for McStain - and we know what that got us. As far as I am concerned, crossover voting is akin to fraud - you should have to prove that you have been a registered member of a party for at least 2 years before being able to vote in its primaries.

decided by a smaller, more motivated and informed group of voters than you do in primaries, where people are more easily swayed by soundbites, and misleading campaign ads, and the low information voter reigns supreme. Any thoughts.

More informed and less swayed by soundbites and ads?

Says who, you? You gonna be the judge on who is the most informed and less swayed?

>>”Says who, you? You gonna be the judge on who is the most informed and less swayed?”

THE judge? Who said anything about me being THE judge. I offered my opinion on the matter. People are entitled to disagree, and no I’m not proposing we switch to caucuses just because I say we should. I’m proposing that it’s worth discussing and that if a consensus develops that it will lead to improvements in the nominating process, it’s something that should be pursued.

As far as caucus goers being more motivated and better informed, that’s my opinion, nothing more and nothing less, but it’s a reasonable one based on certain factors. The time and effort commitment for caucus participation is greater than for primary voters. That correlates to a more motivated and more informed voter. If you have a differing opinion, make your case but don’t try to shut down a discussion with an inane response like “Who are you to decide?”

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