Stan Geiger

Death to Primaries?

Over the weekend, I caught a commentary issued by Bob Schieffer of CBS. He referenced an op-ed he had read in one of the major newspapers in which a man advocated abolishing party primaries. Schieffer seemed to like the idea.

I like Schieffer. He was a newspaper reporter in Fort Worth when John Kennedy was shot. So, basically, he's been a journalist for as long as I've been alive. If a person is to tell me what's going on in the world, I would prefer that person have a little seasoning.

Beyond that, Schieffer seems to have no particular agenda. He simply seems to want government to act like it has some sense. If that be the case, he and I stand on common ground.

The writer of the op-ed pointed to very low voter turnouts for party primaries. He suggested that means reasonable people sit the primaries out while more radical elements on the left and right choose the candidates for general elections. Me thinks there might be some truth in that.

The writer suggested we drop party primaries in favor of one big runoff election. The candidates that finished in the top two would square off in a the general election. Those two candidates might both be Republican, they might both be Democrat, they might both be Independent, or any combination imaginable.

There was a time, in this country, when presidential elections went that way. Everybody that wanted to jumped on the ballot for president. The guy that got the most electoral votes became president while the guy that finished second became vice president. There were no "tickets."

There was a time, in this country, that national party conventions meant something. Today, conventions are nothing but TV shows.

All too often we the people are handed a choice between a Republican or a Democrat selected by party machinery. Average folks get handed the choice of voting for the giant douche or the turd sandwich. Why not open up the process?

Mr. Schieffer said the proposed new process couldn't possibly be worse than the process that currently exists. I tend to agree.

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