Political parties are private entities, not branches of government.
But it looks like we’re doing our own version of “anarchy” here. Though I would dearly love to see Iowa and New Hampshire trumped.
"Political parties are private entities, not branches of government."
Glad to see someone else on FreeRepublic understands this fact.
The two major political parties made a serious mistake when the 'primary' became such an important part of party nominee selection - the major national political parties used the State general election machinery for their 'internal' primary voting process. This use of the State general election machinery and funding for the primary voting places and mechanisms came at a price, it allowed the various State governments to control the timing of the various parties primary voting and qualifications of the voter to participate in said primary elections.
The primary was a creature of the private political parties until they all made this mistake, which even allowed the Federal government to prevent property or financial pre-conditions for primary elections with the passage of the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution. However, party self financed State-wide conventions or caucas would be a way around the various State Legislatures such as New Hampshire mandating that it MUST hold the first primary of the various States.
The 'open' primary process on the Republican side allows any Independent, Democrat or other voters to impact the internal nominee process of the Republican Party. The use of conventions would put the financial responsibility and process control back in the hands of the Republican Party.
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