Primary pandemonium

So, exciting times to be a Hoosier. For the first time in forty whole years, it looks like presidential candidates from the Democratic Party will have to make a major campaign in Indiana. Now that we’re the last heavily-contested state left, I gotta say, I could care less.

It sounds cynical and, perhaps, un-patriotic, but the primaries are something that I hate simply because they are blown completely out of proportion. Here is an event that has only indirect influence on the next President of the United States, yet people are reacting as if this is The Race. Sorry folks, but it ain’t.

Primaries came about as an effort to help the parties pick candidates that the public liked, therefore giving them a better chance in the real election. But, as is the case in many things political, what was once a good idea has become perverted. Candidates who should be trying to appeal to voters based on a commonality of views turn into sniveling masters of the passive-aggressive attack—I suppose you can’t throw mud without getting a little dirty yourself, but I really don’t want to vote for a candidate who only speaks to his (or her) opponent’s weaknesses rather than his (or her) own strengths. A candidate who only seeks to soil an opponent’s reputation hopes to win the election through Ignoratio elenchi—“Look what a terrible candidate [blank] is, and since I am not [blank], I must be the better choice.” That the other person is a terrible candidate is one thing, but that does not make the speaker a good choice. Unfortunately, most of the public doesn’t see this as a fallacy, and instead uses it to go to the polls and vote for the “lesser of two evils.” I don’t know about you all, but I don’t want any evil running my country.

But my biggest problem with the primaries isn’t that the candidates turn into angels or that it brings out the best in the press, no, my biggest problem with the primaries is that people think that they’re doing their civic duty by voting.

The primaries further increase Mass Media’s stranglehold on the public’s imagination, raising a trivial non-event to a fever pitch. All of the major news networks have their own primary sites, where those interested can watch the votes trickle in. And each network provides its own spin (what, you thought the media was unbiased?), tricking voters into thinking that, from the beginning, only a small pool of candidates exists. The press, rather than providing facts to allow readers to make up their own minds, provides sensationalist Newspeak to every literate American—taking quotations out of context and twisting words to fit an implied agenda. The Mass Media sees individuals as either Red or Blue, and treats them as such, failing to realize that most are shades of purple. This polarization is so severe in some areas that voters who don’t like Obama are actually voting for Hillary to hurt his campaign. What happened to voting for the best candidate? What happened to thinking about the future of the country? What happened to treating the election of our leader as serious business instead of some sort of sick game?

But my biggest problem with the primaries isn’t that the candidates turn into angels or that it brings out the best in the press, no, my biggest problem with the primaries is that people think that they’re doing their civic duty by voting. If anything, primaries are the antithesis of the republican process envisioned by the Framers, who envisioned an informed population choosing the candidate they felt was best, not the one that was sensationalized to be the best. Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States does it make provision for or recommend the establishment of a primary election (don’t believe me? Prove me wrong.). I catch flak from friends when I tell them they’re getting worked up over nothing—that primaries are really just one big Nielson TV survey of the populous.

So, I think we should go back; get rid of this whole primary fiasco and let the parties themselves choose their own delegates. In this day of the Internet, why couldn’t the parties measure constituents’ interests remotely, without all the hubbub? Rather than going state-by-state, the whole thing could be accomplished in a day via simple e-voting. (I know, I know, security would be a huge concern and who was actually voting and keeping track of voters…but then again, this isn’t the actual election, it’s just a gauge of public opinion.)

Last but not least, the primaries extend the election season to the brink of absurd—a more than two-year affair from the start of the primaries to the date of inauguration. Nobody likes a circus that overstays its welcome. The clowns just get too creepy.