Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Could the Democrats turn me Republican?

Granted, I haven't called myself a Democrat for, oh, 5 years or so, but I swear if they're actually serious about not campaigning in any state who opts to move up its primary elections, I'm gonna turn Republican on general principle.

Okay, no, not much chance of that, as long as the Christian Wrong has the Pubs in their back pocket. But the point remains.

Now that Michigan has decided to move up its primary, there's no telling where it all will end. Who knows, maybe the 2012 election primaries will be before the 2008 general election?

States moving up their primaries, as if New Hampshire and Iowa are really that important, is pretty myopic and self-serving. But spitting on states that choose to move their primaries is foolish and counterproductive.

Memo to Democrats: Amendment X to the U.S. Constitution, a document that has admittedly grown increasingly unreadable due to the current administration repeatedly wiping their collective ass with it, reads as follows: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

In other words, it's every state's right, granted by the Constitution, to be as moronic as they want. And if that means moving their primary to Christmas Day, so be it.

So please, forsake my state. As I'm not a registered member of either party, I can't vote in either primary anyway -- a stupid rule, I know, but the right to make stupid rules is, as noted above, guaranteed to states by the Constitution -- so it's not like it really makes a difference. But good luck getting my vote in the general election. I may just have to vote for a third-party candidate.

Kodos: "Go ahead! Throw your vote away!"

Damn you Kodos! Damn you!

2 Comments:

Blogger Jeff said...

Yes, but the parties, being non-governmental, can set whatever rules they want. Which includes screwing Florida and Michigan for being moronic. Remember, the selection of presidential candidates via primaries is a relatively recent (late 20th century) advent, and either party can go back to back-room deals among party personalities if it damn well pleases. My point is that we have no constitutional right to a presidential primary, just a general election.

Incidentally, it's not like Florida had any say in the nominating process before the primary got moved. How does the candidates' decision to ignore Florida now that they have a different primary date make the situation any different? Anyway, you'll get your presidential campaign fix, don't worry. IA, NH, and the Feb. 5 states may get the primary campaigners, but after Feb. 5, you'll get it steadily until November. Life in a battleground state means being sick of presidential campaign ads by June.

I'm just about to post about this on my blog, actually.

September 04, 2007 11:49 PM  
Blogger Mike said...

I'm not denying the parties can make whatever rules they want, nor am I claiming that anyone has a constitutional right to a primary. I'm actually not a fan of the primary system as it currently stands anyway (I tried to make that clear in the post).

The point I'm trying to make is that the Democrats will makes more enemies than friends by adhering to party rules in this case.

September 05, 2007 8:54 AM  

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