Excellent

Here we go again, same old _ _ _ _ again. How exactly might we DO SOMETHING about the tired old story of Presidential primaries? Since I was a kid back in the sixties – yeah I know, right after the dinosaurs moved out – I have been puzzled and unamused by America’s dopey comedy show known as the Presidential primaries. I remember following the breathless commentary about what John F. Kennedy was doing – THIS WEEKEND! and what other candidates were doing to try to get some attention from the entertainment media. It seemed uninteresting and tiresome and pointless.

We have a national primary system that, like many things in our home-made politics, was cobbled together with no actual PLAN to create a working, effective method for putting Presidential candidates on the spot – for giving detailed forthright explanations about what they would do when they got into the Ellipse Office. For fifty years I have glanced at these silly political roadshows just to confirm that it is, once again, as ridiculous as ever. It is disgraceful to realize how little we the voters learn about the candidates through month after month after month of a political gabfest. The candidates chase around the country, here and there and back again to make their ‘stump speech’, collect money and move on. Maybe there is a better way to get voters informed accurately and thoroughly about what each candidate is actually all about.

A better way is – REGIONAL PRIMARIES. That is, dividing the country into 6,7, or 8 groups of states and setting a time table for the entire roadshow to proceed through the sections in order over a period of four months. For instance we might have New England/New York ; Middle Atlantic; Southeast; Great Lakes; Upper Midwest; Texas etc; Mountains States; Pacific Coast. That would be eight groups to begin in March and have voting every two weeks and end in June or July just in time for the conventions. I think it might save the candidates a ton of money and help them focus their campaign efforts. The order of state groups would change each successive presidential primary with the first group going to the back of the line in the following election. Over the years it would set up some interesting candidate situations.

This method would bring some SANITY to the process by concentrating media coverage in each section group for the period before that primary day. Along with this we MUST GET RID OF DEBATES. They are stoo-pid, embarrassing, worthless and irritating. We can replace them with a Q and A Discussion format where professors, Governors, retired Representatives and Senators – people who are not media actors trying to put on a show ask serious, helpful questions. Can we PLEASE have a process that actually INFORMS voters? Get rid of entertainment gimmicks, gotcha questions, personality outbursts- and Get Serious. Prior to each Discussion day put up a list of topics that will be focused on so the candidates can prepare intelligent answers to important questions. Limit each Discussion to one, two or three Topics and make the candidates give LONG answers that will reveal the lightweights for what they are. Get away from ‘sound bite’, 30 second spiels that accomplish nothing.

Finally, a crucial point – ALL PRIMARIES MUST BE CLOSED TO PARTY MEMBERS ONLY. It is amazing and infuriating to watch Americans go right along with a process that invites deceit and connivance – when people who are not party members are allowed to vote in that party’s primary. Political parties are PRIVATE organizations and they are obligated to put forward a candidate that the PARTY MEMBERS decide is best for them and Our Country. If we want to find out what people outside the Party think about a candidate we can set up separate tables at the polling places for those people to make their preference known. It is ridiculous and outrageous for OPEN primaries to be allowed to go on. That should be OUTLAWED absolutely. It is disturbing to see a supposedly educated citizenry just go along with this sorry excuse for elected representative government.

Surely we can do better. We can try the Regional Primaries/restricted topic discussion way and see how well it works. If it does not accomplish much – we can always go back to the stoo-pid way.