But you don't understand the PURPOSE of the eighteen-month reality show called CHOOSING THE PRESIDENT 2016™.
The purpose is not to allow voters to have a say (although sometimes they do). It is to shrink every possible leader down to size and to drive all the newly-created little people to the "center", making sure that whoever is elected, nothing ever changes.
If a candidate gets off script or acts out of character, the REAL decision makers - the iron quadrilateral of consultants, pollsters, infotainment media and donors - will quickly make short work of him or her, making sure the public knows he/she is "stupid", "a clown", "unprepared", "unpresidential", "a slutty stewardess", a "racist" (meaningless), a "sexist" (even more meaningless), and so on.
When their power is challenged they first escalate, then they start to panic, which is what is happening now.
Just as "consumers" are supposed to buy the products the advertisers suggest, "voters" are supposed to behave themselves and do as they are told.
Excellent post!
I think that they run the primaries as an old fashioned illusion to offer the people their choice. The second reason is to gather up a 1/2 billion dollars and redistribute it among themselves, advertisers, advisors, and the like. Politicing is a lucrative business.