So over the past 9 or 10 months of the primary season there has been a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth on how the Democratic Party selects their candidate for president. Many people and a candidate have complained about the rigged process and the unfairness of super delegates and closed primaries and caucuses and debates and such…on and on and on…although these things have been a known quantity in one form or another for decades.
Now let me repeat part of this with emphasis added: “…how the Democratic Party selects “their” candidate for president”. And let me stress one more time: CANDIDATE
Should the process be reviewed? Are there places for improvement? Sure, without a doubt. But be careful what you wish for…
The one overreaching complaint of course is that the process isn’t democratic (well it is within the party but for the overall population not so much…but that’s how it should be). But compare the American process for selecting a candidate to the British process of actually electing the next leader of their nation, the Prime Minister!
First, the Conservative Party holds the majority in Parliament. Three Conservative Party members wanted to be Prime Minister…so a primary was held to narrow the field down to two. Did the great population of Great Britain vote in the primary? No, it came down to the 329 Conservative Party members of Parliament…they voted the first round:
Britain is on course to get its second female prime minister, after Conservative lawmakers chose Home Secretary Theresa May and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom on Thursday to fight a runoff contest for leadership of the country’s governing party.
May received 199 votes in a ballot of Conservative members of Parliament, while Leadsom received 84. Justice Secretary Michael Gove got 46 votes and was eliminated from the race.
Incredibly democratic so for, hey?
So the Conservative Party has their candidates…what about the other parties? Well they get no say whatsoever. None, nil, nada. So who gets to vote? Well the 150,000 members of the Conservative Party:
Some 150,000 Conservative Party members will now vote by postal ballot on the two candidates, with the result announced Sept. 9.
The winner will replace Prime Minister David Cameron…
Wait, what? No other parties get to put forward candidates? Labor Party can’t vote? Wha?
So despite the fact that millions of Americans got to vote for the Democratic candidate for president…it’s not democratic…well compared to what? A nation that is sometimes held up as an example of the democratic process is going to elect their Prime Minister on the backs of 150,000 members of one single party just because they currently hold the majority in Parliament. Suppose we had something like that here and now in the US. Would you want Rep. Paul Ryan’s cabal selecting your next president.
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!
My problem with our system is that in most states, including Wisconsin, public tax dollars are used to select candidates for the political parties. They should use their own resources and money for their internal selection process.