Sunday, September 23, 2007
Primary Politics
There's something positively American about primaries. They serve as a way for the Average Joe (or Jane!) to register their opinions about who they think is a better candidate. Primaries separate the winners from the losers, the strong from the weak, the men from the babies...well, you get the idea. It just feels right. Gone are the days when men in the cloak rooms sat together to hammer out who they thought would be the best nominee. Gone are the days that a candidate can win the nomination without winning a single primary (I'm looking at you, Hubert Humphrey). Today, it's natural to think that the candidate who gets through the primary process victorious is a better politician because of it.
The winners from the losers, the strong from the weak, the men from the babies; yes. The better from the worse however, I don't know. Better politicians yes, but better governors and policy makers (as far as their voters are concerned),once again I don't know. Perhaps I am just too idealistic to think that the perfect democracy can produce not the perfect politicians but the perfect societal administrators. I do realize how pathetic it is to say this, but what I want is a democracy that yields politicians who know when to do what the average Joe wants and know when to do what the average Joe needs.
ReplyDeleteYou made a lot of good points in your post. Primaries definetley are a good way for average joes to get their name out there, but not necessarily what our political system needs. Everyone deserves a fair chance in politics, but do we really want some inexperienced and unknowledgable people telling us what to do? Just a thought.
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