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For Democrats, Florida Primary May Not Count
be951 writes "Democratic party leaders are seriously considering making the Florida primary 'nonbinding', meaning they could ignore the actual vote by Florida democrats and allow party leaders to decide how Florida's more than 200 delegates are divided up among the candidates. 'I think it's much higher than 50-50 that we will make Jan. 29 a nonbinding' election, said Jon Ausman, a veteran Democratic organizer in Tallahassee and member of the Democratic National Committee. This is in response to Florida's move to an earlier presidential preference primary, which scrambled the primary calendar carefully worked out by the two national parties."
Moving the primary to such an earlier date was tried in the '99 Republican primary in Louisiana, and it didn't take so well (partially because the party chair was such a nutcase). Primaries ARE moving up, though, and I would like to see a few early ones spread more around the country than just New Hampshire and Iowa. The national parties (and candidates) don't like to play along...because of the travel that it entails, I suppose.
Other than that, I don't mind the primary system all that much in the US. Each state has its own particular "flavor" of primaries, and they work rather well.
They aren't the problem...it's the money involved that doesn't give lower-tier candidates (who occasionally make sense) a chance, but I don't want my tax money to go to one of them for their campaign.
Just because your personal representative doesn't vote the way you want him to does not mean that he is voting because of the party line
No, but when they ALL vote that way, it means exactly that.
It gets worse. On many items (NAFTA. Immigration Reform. etc.) BOTH parties line up on the same side of the ball, so you can't even make a difference by jumping ship.
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Have you followed votes in the federal government over the last 10 years? Correlation between votes among common party members is incredibly high. It is blatantly obvious that most votes on the federal level go down on party lines.
The point of representational democracy is that the representative THINKS and VOTES their own beliefs, as a representation of what the their constituents want. It is their responsibility to understand their constituents and represent them. This is not what politicians do at all today - politicians primarily represent their party, mostly for financial reasons.
As for not following what the constituents what, examples are rampant. This post is an excellent troll, as it starts out sounding reasonable and casts doubt on a situation that is completely obvious.
The Iowa caucuses are non-binding, and that didn't prevent them from deciding the 2004 Democratic nomination. The 24/7 news media is so desperate for media that they will over-play any event, no matter how insignificant it's intended to be. You didn't hear that John Kerry won a non-binding caucus that, due to its format (no secret ballots, and caucus-goers need to stay at the events for far longer than it takes to cast a ballot) might not even reflect the will of the Democrats of Iowa, much less the Nation. You heard that John Kerry was a winner, John Edwards was a cute number 2, and Howard Dean was bleeping nuts. You heard this for a solid week every time you turned on a TV, opened a newspaper, or listened to the radio. Once they'd finished carpet bombing America with the results to the point where everyone knew what had happened a few day later, they spent the rest of the week with talking head after talking head dissecting WHY John Kerry was a winner, John Edwards was a cute number 2, and Howard Dean was bleeping nuts. Even their coverage of what the candidates were doing in New Hampshire introduced Kerry as the Iowa winner, Edwards as the young attractive runner up, and Crazy Howard Dean. Wesley Clark chose to ignore Iowa, and it's unclear if anyone even knew he was in the race a week later. No grassroots campaign, no amount of phone calls, ad purchases, emails, or even door to door visits can equal the impact this had on undecided voters, and what do you know, a week later New Hampshire believed that John Kerry was a winner, John Edwards was a cute number 2, and Howard Dean was bleeping nuts.
The Florida Dems can make the contest non-binding, but the point is moot if coverage of their primary decides the outcome in all the binding contests that happen after the Florida Primary. Unless, of course, Iowa 2008 has already decided the race by then.
It's pretty simple. State political parties looked at Iowa and New Hampshire with their early primaries and saw all the money that got spent in those states in order to gain momentum. The other states got jealous that they hadn't thought of it first, so a whole crapload (that's the poli-sci term) of states moved their primaries forward to try to get some more attention, and more importantly, money. Apparently, Florida is one of those states that didn't think it had a big enough impact on the political process in 2000 and 2004 *boggle*.
Now the national political parties are pissed because they have do dilute thier funding and not focus on only a few states very early. So the Dems are reacting (IMO appropriately) and saying that if Florida really wants its primary so early we might just not pay attention to it.
The older I get, the more I agree, and the more I think campaign finance along the lines of what other countries have is the solution.
Parties apply, and get $x million per candidate (or however it's decided). This money comes out of the treasury, paid by taxes. No private donation. When the Republicans (me), the Democrats (others), and the Greens and such have to play on a level field, we'll get some real competition.
Of course, as you can guess, neither party is going to vote for this. We'd need to make this a referendum or some such.
So this idea goes with Steve Forbes' tax plan and many others that are great ideas that congress won't vote for because they have such a vested interest in the status quo.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
While there is significant evidence that human "wiring" is highly flexible and easily changed on 2-4 week time spans, I do agree, the desire to form groups is significant. I also agree with you on the borders that happen around groups.
However, the problem now is that these two, extremely powerful groups in the US are simply (and only) a tradition, and the aggregate effect is not in the best interests of representational democracy (my opinion).
We need to teach that other groups are more important than one's party. We need to make these other groups carry more weight and wean people off the idea that a politician *IS* a D or and R. They are not.
The most important group people need to be thinking about today is this: humans on earth. We're all in the same boat now (environmentally) - and unless we start telling the elected officials to start rowing together, the ships going to take on a lot more water, and so are our coastal cities.
Really? Is there some unwritten rule that we must vote for the guy with the most money? Or is it actually codified into law? The internet is busting down lots a barriers that were put up against the small guy. There is no excuse anymore. We make or break the system. What choice will you make? The solution is in the mirror, not some unworkable legislation.
What?
The government and people of the State of Florida are not giving up the pretense of anything. The party bosses of the Democratic (big D) party in Florida has given up any pretense of caring about democratic (little d) issues.
This is all about control. Florida (like many states) is trying to move the primaries earlier so that Florida has a larger say in who the nominees for each party are. Of course its an arms race no state can win 'cause other states will simply move it even earlier. The entire attempt is foolish, but not anti-democratic.
The party bosses (of both parties) don't want a "new" guy they can't control to get early buzz from a primary without other coverage. They want it to be "non-binding" so the party power owners can make their deals and get their guy.
The current political parties are ancient relics that need to get revised and realigned. As the "party faithful" go out and pick the candidates for the rest of the country, the less-than-enthusiastic "middle" will eventually come out and say, "Screw you all! I want someone who isn't as extreme as you clowns running and ruining this country any more."
Even George Washington warned against the formation of political parties.
OCO is Loco
Primaries are run by the parties, they're free to make up any rules they want.
[Insert pithy quote here]
"yet the average Slashdotter thinks"
What the hell is an "average Slashdotter", and who the hell are you to presume what anybody else thinks about anything? You seem to want there to be a hive mind of "average Slashdotters" with you as the voice of reason.
Guess what, Sparky. You ain't.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!