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Democratic Primary Process Needs a Revamp
The political mess in Florida and Michigan has highlighted the imperfect Democratic presidential primary system in much the same manner as the Florida debacle of 2000 highlighted problems with the Electoral College. It would take a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to change the Electoral College, but a change to the Democratic primary system is doable.
For this year, the existing rules must be adhered to by Florida and Michigan. We can't change the rules after the game starts in order to gain an advantage. Florida and Michigan did not follow the rules and must not be allowed at this point to declare Hillary as the winner because that would not be fair to Barack Obama or any of the other candidates. However, I do share the states' motivation for wanting to conduct their primaries earlier. It is not a fair selection process for Iowa and New Hampshire to always conduct the first vetting of the candidates.
Since it would not be feasible to conduct all the primaries on the same date, states should take turns in a rotational system that determines when primaries could be held. For example, if Iowa and New Hampshire are first in 2008, they would be last in 2012.
That's a change that does not require changing the U.S. Constitution and it would make the country feel more like equal partners in the selection of the Democratic nominee. And all of us would welcome a more fairer and equitable selection process, wouldn't we?
Comments (1)
Absolutely! This is definitely the place to start when looking to eventually get rid of the Electoral College. I would like to see weighted Preference Voting used.
There is some truth to the benefit of the "retail politics" of Iowa but a bit of diversity would help.. so a rotation of maybe two smaller states in the current Iowa slot, followed by two others a month from there or so.
March 11, 2008 2:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
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