Posted on 02/19/2020 7:20:42 AM PST by maggief
The Washington Post is taking criticism for an op-ed published Tuesday by Marquette University political science professor Julia Azari, titled: Its time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president.
Citing the rocky start to the Democratic Partys presidential primary, Azari suggests that the process of choosing the nominee be taken from the people and returned to the politicians:
The current process is clearly flawed, but what would be better? A better primary system would empower elites to bargain and make decisions, instructed by voters.
One lesson from the 2020 and 2016 election cycles is that a lot of candidates, many of whom are highly qualified and attract substantial followings, will inevitably enter the race. The system as it works now with a long informal primary, lots of attention to early contests and sequential primary season that unfolds over several months is great at testing candidates to see whether they have the skills to run for president. What its not great at is choosing among the many candidates who clear that bar, or bringing their different ideological factions together, or reconciling competing priorities. A process in which intermediate representatives elected delegates who understand the priorities of their constituents can bargain without being bound to specific candidates might actually produce nominees that better reflect what voters want.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
So what happened to “our democracy is in danger”?
“We dont want upstart rank and file voters getting ideas...”
You left out about 64 million Deplorable Voters. We are among the rankest voters in the eyes of the elite rats.
The headline isn’t deceptive. Giving voters a choice of pre-approved options isn’t democracy, it’s veiled oligarchy.
Yes, the current system is imperfect. A slate of “normal” candidates loses by splitting the majority vote, giving a plurality to the outlier nutcase. Would be best at this point if the “normal” candidates were to huddle and decide which objectively has the best chance, the remainders checking out lest the nut win. Other solutions welcome for consideration, but most quickly prove little more than handing power to an unelected oligarchy.
The current system isn’t completely broken either. It’s how we got Trump: he was the outlier, and the remainder fragmented the majority vote so none could win against him (nor could they have won against Hillary). I’m not convinced Bernie isn’t the right choice for Democrats: fact is he IS the best embodiment of the party’s values, and the remainder are unelectable (vs Trump) twits. Bernie can’t win the general, but actually is the Left’s best chance to.
The problem with “Democratic Socialism” (which the article is premised on) is: who decides what goes on the ballot? if all options are practically indistinguishable, being whatever The Party would be happy with, why bother with voting?
Democrats oppose democracy.
Ahhhh. Iranian. Thank you.
I say yes. Go ahead an let the elites choose a president. But he would only be president of the elites, not of the rest of us. Then the elites can obey whatever THEIR president says and the rest of us can just ignore him.
Come to think of it, it looks like they’ve already done that. Soros seems to be the current elite president with HRC as VP. The elites all do as they are told by this duo. They are trying to make the rest of us comply by various means - propaganda, trickery, threats of violence. But now that we have Trump and can see how they’ve been operating, it’s not working on the rest of us any more. Bwahahahaha.
That's actually what the current system used to be. Primaries are meant to be HOW parties picked candidates. The primaries used to all take place within a much shorter time span.
"Settled Law" still says, I think, that the parties control primaries, and the state just administers them in the manner specified by the party. I recall when a state, California I think, changed primary rules in a way that one of the parties did not like. The party filed suit and quickly prevailed, with the court ruling that the primary was to be conducted in a manner specified by the party.
Below is one example of current judicial sanity:
https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article236780358.html
In her decision, (South Carolina) Circuit Court Judge Jocelyn Newman said state law unambiguously says that the S.C. GOP has the right to decide whether it wants to hold a presidential primary, and because voters arent directly voting for a candidate in the contest, state law does not apply to the presidential primary.
Not even trying to hide it anymore.
L
I’m waiting for that to happen in Venezuela.
That's also how we wound up with McCain in 2008.
You have a screw loose? That would suck. That British system of the party presenting us candidates that the little people have no say in choosing would have given us Jeb. There would have never been a President Trump.
But, but, but - I thought the dems wanted to get rid of the Electoral College for a popular vote. I’m so confused.
I pay as much attention to a poli sci prof as I do the guy on the corner with the The End Is Coming sandwich board.
Who would want a country that looks like California,0
I pay as much attention to a poli sci prof as I do the guy on the corner with the The End Is Coming sandwich board.
At least with the sandwich board idiot, you can say get out of my way or that sandwich board becomes part of your rectum.
You mean like the Dims superdelegates?
My sign at the 9/12 rally in Washington, DC, back in the day was “NO PAY, NO SAY”
Firm believer we need to only allow taxpayers. And all seniors who paid all of taxes all of their lives. We pay for this country, we should have the word on how it is run.
This is presented as a means to avoid the mess the Dems have made of the 2020 candidate selection. But it isn’t. It’s intended to keep a Trump from ever happening again.
We will just start a hereditary class of people who are the only ones who can be candidates. We'll call them... "Legislaturalists". And we can appoint managers to tell people who to vote for. We'll call them "managers".
What could go wrong eh Rob?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.