Look, you can defend this every which way from Sunday if you think this isn’t a problem, but the fact is Republicans will not be selecting their own candidates. Democrats will be helping them do it.
That is NOT a good game plan.
Part of the reason, perhaps the main reason we have John McCain winning re-election time after time, is because Democrats are selecting him to run. You get a small part of the Republicans wanting McCain, and then a ton of Democrats. We can’t get a Conservative on the November ballot.
What’s your plan when the Dems don’t even loft a candidate, because they love our RINO so much?
But this precisely won’t happen because the Dems will be voting for their Democratic candidate, rather than meddle with the Republican one, because now not only is there an incentive for finishing 1st, but also 2nd.
The open primaries you’re talking about allowed people to vote in both.