So Lincoln wasn’t elected? The process is generally the same as it has been since Lincoln’s time. Wyoming had a caucus system not very different from that of Iowa except that in Iowa the people are personally much more involved because of all the national attention. If Iowa were not allowed to go first, participation in the caucus would go way down. In the primary states, such as Florida, relatively few people get personally involved until the season begins and they hear the hype on TV and now the social media.
OMG, you have got to be kidding. Each state has their own process, and as you may have noticed, those processes are not at all alike.
Plus we only had 36 states by the end of Lincoln’s presidency and AQ/ISIS/hate-America communists were not breathing down our neck.
Times have changed drastically. Maybe the process needs to keep up?
I was just asking the question. When party insiders pick the nominee like in Colorado and Wyoming and only a very small minority have the opportunity to even participate and the bosses just pick whoever they want... that does not feel like an election. That is a rigged system. It is rigged for the insiders, for the lobbyists, for the special interests and I guess you like that. A lot has changed since “Lincoln's time” maybe it is time for the system to be reformed. Maybe it is time for the people to have more input? I am pretty sure that if Cruz was not the recipient you would be singing a different tune. It is time to for reform.
Delegates to the national convention were usually selected at state conventions whose own delegates were chosen by district conventions. Sometimes they were dominated by intrigue between political bosses who controlled delegates; the national convention was far from democratic or transparent. Progressive Era reformers looked to the primary election as a way to measure popular opinion of candidates, as opposed to the opinion of the bosses. In 1910, Oregon became the first state to establish a presidential preference primary, which requires delegates to the National Convention to support the winner of the primary at the convention. By 1912, twelve states either selected delegates in primaries, used a preferential primary, or both. By 1920 there were 20 states with primaries, but some went back, and from 1936 to 1968, 12 states used them.
The primary received its first major test in the 1912 election pitting incumbent President William Howard Taft against challengers Theodore Roosevelt and Robert La Follette. Roosevelt proved the most popular candidate, but as most primaries were non-binding "preference" shows and held in only fourteen of the-then forty-eight states, the Republican nomination went to Taft, who controlled the convention.
Seeking to boost voter turnout, New Hampshire simplified its ballot access laws in 1949. In the ensuing "beauty contest" of 1952, Republican Dwight Eisenhower demonstrated his broad voter appeal by out-polling the favored Robert A. Taft, "Mr. Republican." Also, Democrat Estes Kefauver defeated incumbent President Harry S. Truman, leading the latter to decide not to run for another term. The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary has since become a widely-observed test of candidates' viability.
The impetus for national adoption of the binding primary election was the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention. Vice President Hubert Humphrey secured the nomination despite not winning a single primary under his own name. After this, a Democratic National Committee-commissioned panel led by Senator George McGovern – the McGovern–Fraser Commission – recommended that states adopt new rules to assure wider participation. A large number of states, faced with the need to conform to more detailed rules for the selection of national delegates, chose a presidential primary as an easier way to come into compliance with the new national Democratic Party rules. The result was that many more future delegates would be selected by a state presidential primary. The Republicans also adopted many more state presidential primaries.
Lincoln was nominated in a time when the caucus system was the only viable system. People were isolated by horse an buggy modes of travel. Today the process can be streamlined and, has been, with processes like we saw in New York.
wrong, not sure where you have got your talking points but Lincoln was very different.
Lincoln never had a primary and he stuffed the room with his delegates before the other delegates could fit in the room.
Next time you spout a talking point then understand what is it you are saying.