Posted on 11/15/2025 2:40:27 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The root cause of the nation’s longest government shutdown – and the next one, and the one after that – isn’t ideological extremism or hyper-partisanship on their own. It’s the incentives created by the outsized influence of party primary elections.
The good news is that there is an easy and effective solution to America’s primary problem: open, all-candidate primaries.
Shutdowns are no longer rare or risky. Both dominant parties take the U.S. government hostage on an increasingly regular basis because lawmakers fear losing a low-turnout primary more than they fear harming millions of Americans.
The Cook Political Report projects that next year, 92% of House races and 83% of Senate races are safe for Democrats or Republicans and will be effectively decided in party primaries. For lawmakers holding those seats, losing the general election is nearly impossible. Their political futures will be decided in primary elections, a toxic dynamic that forces Democrats to appeal to stridently liberal voters and drives Republican candidates to the far-right MAGA margins.
In non-competitive seats, the elections will be decided by less than 10% of eligible voters – those voting in party primaries. Making matters worse, 16.6 million registered independent voters in 16 states are not allowed to vote in party primaries for Congress, which denies them access to the only elections that count. This injustice is magnified by the fact that party primaries are funded by taxpayers, millions of whom can’t vote in them.
Therefore, during this shutdown, the political calculus was simple for most Democrats: Closing the government aligned with their reelection strategies. Compromise would risk inviting a challenger from their own party. That’s why they held the line for more than 40 days, and why Republicans showed no willingness to negotiate over Obamacare subsidies. Both sides responded predictably to the same structural...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Fixed it.
No.
Not just no, HELL NO!
L
A primary is where “your team” picks their candidate. What sense does it make to invite the other team into your business?
Honestly…it’s kind of a stupid idea. We shouldn’t do it for Presidential Primaries either.
Jeez…. we need to eliminate CURRENTLY open primaries (e.g., South Carolina’s) NOT create new ones. While we’re at it we should ELIMINATE RANKED CHOICE VOTING!
I got an idea. Shove it up yo @$$.
How about no primaries? Just election day.
Chaos to election day, total chaos for a week or so after.
I like it.
How about no primaries? Just election day.
You want 20 candidates and someone winning with 6% of the vote?
Gee, Wally, no, I guess not. The current system where the same people “serve” for 50 or 60 years is MUCH better. You know what, Wally?, you sure are smart. 🙄
Yeah the rats at RealClear Politics would love that no doubt.
No
I could not agree more.
I’m not there as an option for cheating. Of course they want it.
Commies love it and ranked choice as well.
Ranked choice shouldn’t exist. We’ve never voted for multiple candidates....so how did this even come about??
Open Primaries Would keep Government under control of the Uniparty, Media, and Deep State.
Not only no but HAY-ELL NO!
A lot of us have been fighting for years in TN to get closed primaries.
“””The good news is that there is an easy and effective solution to America’s primary problem: open, all-candidate primaries.””””
OPEN PRIMARIES are how we get RINO squishes like Lindsay Graham in SC and John Cornyn in TX.
SC and TX are conservative states, but with open primaries the Democrats and Independents influence who the GOP candidate will be.
No pay for congress while the government is closed (and no back pay when it reopens either)
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