DISENFRANCHISING VOTERS WHO ARE ALREADY DISENFRANCHISED.The Democratic National Committee has now stripped Michigan of all of its delegates at the 2008 convention. Florida was stripped of its delegates earlier. The Committee has disenfranchised so many voters because Florida and Michigan scheduled primaries before the few privileged states whose primaries are intended to be important. The disenfranchisement shouldn’t matter. Michigan voters–both Republican and Democratic–haven’t had a meaningful voice in the choice of Presidential candidates for many years. Basically, only Iowa and New Hampshire voters get a say in choosing a Presidential candidate, and party leaders are eager to keep it that way. It is surprising that so little attention is paid to such large states losing their voice, but perhaps the media also considers this disenfranchisement a non-event.
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Question – WHY do party leaders want to keep things the way they are? Are they worried of facing the malice of New Hampshire and Iowa? As lovely as those states are…
I’d like to reinforce Nick’s comment with another hearty “WHY?” I admit to knowing very very little about politics, but the amount of power these two states have makes no sense to me at all.
Isn’t the real problem that there is no agreed upon system for sequencing primaries? In the absence of one, we have turned presidential elections into a two year circus. While our system necessitates a longer campaign than the compact Canadian and British elections, shouldn’t we be moving more in that direction?
Change can be instigated by the media. Unfortunately, they’re more concerned with talking about celebrities, and the horse-race aspect of elections. Americans don’t want to hear what they don’t know, and don’t want to be informed. They want to have it reaffirmed that they already know everything in quck soundbites.
You’ve got it right, Nick!
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