23rd May 2016, 6:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 23rd May 2016, 7:16 AM by Dark Jaguar.)
So, you're saying independent voters aren't really being good citizens, because a good citizen is one that picks a party? Are you kidding me? I reject that entirely.
As an aside, let me describe how the primaries went for me in Oklahoma. This state, as you may already know, picked Sanders. What you may not be aware of (it's public knowledge but rarely reported) is that Oklahoma law has set up primary votes so that individual parties can, depending on their whims, decide whether or not independent voters can vote for that party's primary. So, one term I can vote, and the next I can't, depending on whatever the higher ups in that party decide. In this case, Dems allowed independents to vote, and Republicans did not. It all felt very arbitrary. For my part, when I got in line, I soon found out that if I'm an independent voter, I have to state out loud for all and sundry to hear that "I am here to vote for the democratic candidate", which isn't a very good feeling when it's as likely as not you'll be surrounded by people who interpret that as meaning I'm some limp-wristed socialist.
Let me just say this. It's a bit contradictory to say at once "they are individual parties and can run themselves as they see fit" and also "you need to accept that this is how our system works and if you don't pick a party you're not really a contributing member of the process". I'll end by saying that if you are claiming that the Republicans aren't at fault just because your campaign decided not to focus on them as lost causes, that's pretty weird, and not at all my point.
As an aside, let me describe how the primaries went for me in Oklahoma. This state, as you may already know, picked Sanders. What you may not be aware of (it's public knowledge but rarely reported) is that Oklahoma law has set up primary votes so that individual parties can, depending on their whims, decide whether or not independent voters can vote for that party's primary. So, one term I can vote, and the next I can't, depending on whatever the higher ups in that party decide. In this case, Dems allowed independents to vote, and Republicans did not. It all felt very arbitrary. For my part, when I got in line, I soon found out that if I'm an independent voter, I have to state out loud for all and sundry to hear that "I am here to vote for the democratic candidate", which isn't a very good feeling when it's as likely as not you'll be surrounded by people who interpret that as meaning I'm some limp-wristed socialist.
Let me just say this. It's a bit contradictory to say at once "they are individual parties and can run themselves as they see fit" and also "you need to accept that this is how our system works and if you don't pick a party you're not really a contributing member of the process". I'll end by saying that if you are claiming that the Republicans aren't at fault just because your campaign decided not to focus on them as lost causes, that's pretty weird, and not at all my point.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)