It’s a primary, vot for something, you’ll never have to hold your nose in a primary.
It’s a nice notion and all, but in far too many locations, people have to vote strategically even in the primary. Very specific example: my state has a gubernatorial election coming up this year. Red and blue primaries are loaded. One of the blue candidates is a lapdog for the state mob boss power broker. Another blue candidate is a sleazeball with money to have been running conservative talking point ads for the past two months. The rest of the field is a mix of middle of the road types and various levels of progressive. At least some of them are there to split the vote, which is historically what the mob boss power broker has done to protect his people (like, say, his little brother) from getting primaried once entrenched. Whoever survives the primary is likely going to do so with only ~30-40% of the vote. If I vote by platform, it’s effectively tossing my vote away. The only chance at avoiding the sleazeball or lap dog is everyone unifying behind some other (likely) moderate. Failing that, the governor’s race is going to mirror the presidential, with someone at best unlikable vs whatever the conservative grift machine turns out.
And in other more local races, the primary is the election. Shit is that deeply embedded here. Being in a solid blue district has its upshots. Fair and open primaries aren’t one of them.
This shit right here is why FPTP needs to die. There are definitely better and worse options among the proportional voting systems, but all of them are at least better than FPTP.
All I can ask is you vote in the Dem primaries.
It’s a primary, vot for something, you’ll never have to hold your nose in a primary.
It’s a nice notion and all, but in far too many locations, people have to vote strategically even in the primary. Very specific example: my state has a gubernatorial election coming up this year. Red and blue primaries are loaded. One of the blue candidates is a lapdog for the state
mob bosspower broker. Another blue candidate is a sleazeball with money to have been running conservative talking point ads for the past two months. The rest of the field is a mix of middle of the road types and various levels of progressive. At least some of them are there to split the vote, which is historically what themob bosspower broker has done to protect his people (like, say, his little brother) from getting primaried once entrenched. Whoever survives the primary is likely going to do so with only ~30-40% of the vote. If I vote by platform, it’s effectively tossing my vote away. The only chance at avoiding the sleazeball or lap dog is everyone unifying behind some other (likely) moderate. Failing that, the governor’s race is going to mirror the presidential, with someone at best unlikable vs whatever the conservative grift machine turns out.And in other more local races, the primary is the election. Shit is that deeply embedded here. Being in a solid blue district has its upshots. Fair and open primaries aren’t one of them.
This shit right here is why FPTP needs to die. There are definitely better and worse options among the proportional voting systems, but all of them are at least better than FPTP.
If it comforts you any, I vote in any/all elections be they primary, local, federal, or otherwise.
I never have to “hold my nose”, but my results have been… somewhat less than inspiring. 🤷♂️