[Javeth]

Wow, thanks for posting those numbers— looks like Graham’s RINO-ing has an awful lot of Democratic enabling. Is this a structural issue with South Carolina’s primary and general electoral system? I don’t think I’ve heard of this sort of thing in other states.

[so_real]

We have a similar problem in Wisconsin: open primaries. But closed primaries are not a good solution either (requiring citizens to join a party and be a card-carrying member just to have a voice in the primary is not a good solution). The best solution is probably to do away with the "Packers vs Vikings" mentality, lump all candidates from all parties into one primary election and have the top two or three contenders vie for the office in the general election. That's not going to happen. So the only option we have left is to energize the base so as to turn out our conservative voters in overwhelming numbers. I thought there was a chance South Carolina would do just that. But, the total turn out was actually lower this cycle than last ... which is also very odd ...