How can you defend the very people who don’t think you deserve a say in who represents you. The same people who conned us into a House and Senate majority then gave Obama every damn thing he asked for.
The only way you can defend that is if you’re one of them, too bad.
I have been at the political involvement game a long time. It used to be called “good citizenship.” I lost count long ago of how many local political mass meetings I attended, how many city conventions, how many state conventions. I do remember that I attended two national conventions, for Nixon in 1972 and Reagan in 1976. That’s how it has been done since the founding. Voting in an open primary, where democrats can pick the GOP nominee, is a fairly recent thing.
I see no advantage to it. The party should be run by the party.