Republicans and Democrats do not represent the American people, the constituents they are allegedly elected to represent, but rather the narrow factional interests of the parties and their corporate sponsors. In other words, the Republican and Democratic parties represent a direct threat to democratic, republican government in the United States. Consider the uproar in the GOP in response to reports that
Florida may decide to move its primary election to January 2012. Excerpt from CNN:
Florida is now expected to hold its presidential primary on the last day
in January 2012, a move likely to throw the carefully arranged
Republican nominating calendar into disarray and jumpstart the
nominating process a month earlier than party leaders had hoped. . . .
If that happens, it would almost certainly force the traditional early
states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to leapfrog
Florida and move their primaries and caucuses into early- to
mid-January. . . .
Florida's move would directly violate RNC rules that
forbid any state other than the first four "carve-out" states -- Iowa,
New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- from holding a primary
before March 6. [Emphasis added.]
States that ignore the RNC rules are subject to
losing half of their delegates -- party representatives who ultimately
choose the nominee -- to the Republican National Convention in Tampa,
Florida, next August.
Apparently, the petty tyrants in the politburo of the Republican National Committee believe that they can dictate the time and manner in which states hold their elections. The United States Constitution says otherwise.
Article 1, Section 4:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and
Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof;
but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except
as to the Place of Chusing Senators.
The very idea that a narrow, factionalist group such as the Republican party could override the US Constitution and the federalist system of government, and dictate when a state decides to hold any election, should be held in contempt by every thinking American. Now the question is whether the people of Florida will kowtow to the demands of the party's apparatchiks or assert their political independence as guaranteed by the US Constitution.
2 comments:
At the least, Florida should withhold funding or institutional support from Republican primaries at every level, as well as Democratic primaries, in order to be bipartisan.
Indeed, as I understand it, Florida has closed primaries. Why should the public have to fund party nominating elections that aren't open to the public? They should make the parties pay their own way.
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