In the “trump ll; First 100 days” thread I misstated being forced to register as a Democrat. I’m confined to a single party in primaries in my state.
Why would you want to vote in the other party’s primaries? That seems dishonest.
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As I implied earlier, I have no party. I’ll vote for a scandal-free, pro-labor candidate of any affiliation.
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Didn’t read the other thread, but I do know one party is pro labor and the other is pro pure free-market.
“pure free-market”? I don’t see either party supporting a pure free market. A pure free market would mean no tariffs, no farm subsidies, and legal prostitution and narcotics trades.
FYI the Jones Act is very much NOT pure free-market.
My beef is that I’m forced to identify with one party or the other in order to vote in primaries.
I see little evidence of a free market, given the amount of “corporate welfare” allocated to businesses.
Rock_Hill, I was typing this when your response appeared!
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Yes that’s why the libertarians, and people like the Cato institute, and others that are economically right-leaning are against the jones act. Whereas those that support government intervention in the economy, and protectionist policies support it. However many republicans do see the national security benefit of the JA, which is why it broadly has bi-partisan support. It also has bi-partisan opposition when you add in the Puerto Rican and Hawaiian opponents who are otherwise left leaning.
No one’s forcing you. Primaries are an internal affair. You can join in whatever party you want, or not at all. But if you’re voting in a primary, you’re choosing who you want to represent your party in the election.
That depends on the party rules in your state.
I’m not registered with any party, which in my state means I can vote in one party’s primary in each election (just not more than one party’s primary per election); but it doesn’t matter which party I choose.
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Given this response I’m confused when you say one party is “pro pure free-market”, cause I still don’t see one? Farm subsidies in particular are a complete manipulation of the free market to the “benefit” of farmers. From ethanol gas to the price of milk this is all rigging the market because of the power of the farm lobby. I don’t think either party is looking to eliminate farm subsidies. Although they might each have a different ideal way to execute them, in general the “farm bill” is pretty bi-partisan. It’s usually the SNAP portion and the food for poor children that is the hardest to agree upon, because supporting farmers is supported by both parties but feeding poor kids isn’t.
I am forced to choose in my state. Primaries for Dems and Repubs occur on the same day, and a choice must be declared to receive the correct ballot. It puts my choice into the public domain. That irritates me; not only that, it causes me to receive an endless stream of political junk mail.
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I am registered “unaffiliated” so when I vote in a primary, I have to choose one party’s ballot or the other. But in the general election, I am free to vote for whoever I want.
You can always vote for whomever you want in a general election. What @AKBJR is describing and complaining about is a closed primary such as exists in Florida.
In a closed primary, a declared Independent can’t vote in the primaries. You must register for the party for which you wish to receive a ballot. Sometimes, you may be motivated to vote against a particular candidate. In that case, you would need to register for that candidate’s party. There’s nothing dishonest about it: one election, one person, one vote.
If the USA had a true democracy there would be no 'closed primary"
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Then there are those who would argue “But we are a ‘republic’”.
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The US Senate is not a true representative body as their numbers don’t reflect the population of their state but they can make or break any law written by the House which is aligned with the states population gerrymandered though they may be.
The 7 million residents of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming elect sixteen senators; meanwhile, the 147 million Americans living in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas elect only fourteen senators.
Throw in all the corruption allowed by unlimited bribery allowed under the Citizens United ruling and you have a moneyed class able to craft laws to benefit themselves by buying the votes of the senators who represent a small minority of the population.
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I read “somewhere” in the past that some of what passes for “bills or laws” were actually written by lobbyists and given to their “tame/pet” representative. As the bitter saying goes, “How do you tell and honest politician? An honest politician stays ‘bought’”.
Who cares what you call it? There are no ‘true democracies’ ie with every decision taken by voting and nobody knows what the hell a republic is with definitions varying from North Korea to Cuba to the USA. Take your pick.
Yes it is. It represents the states, each of which has equal status and thus equal representation. The lower house represents the people more directly. It’s a design feature of your system (also in Australia) that the small states would not join unless they could be assured they wouldn’t be swamped and outvoted by the big states.
Yes. There’s heaps. How come politicians can get so rich on their pay?
The long term answer is to disempower the government to the very few issues actually authorised by your constitution (defence, security, law and order etc), return responsibility to individuals (the people) who then keep more of their pay to cover the free stuff not being shovelled out by corrupt politicians.
Occasionally you could execute a corrupt politician or two publicly by firing squad, pour encourager les autres.
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I like the term “Republic”, but that’s just me. 
I also know we have a “mixed” type of government, part republic/democracy and part socialist. (SS, MEDICARE, ETC.) I believe in a “capitalist” economy, but laissez faire tends to give too much freedom/lack of regulation. But what chaps my liver is when someone says the money I paid into SS and MEDICARE for over 40 years is an “entitlement”. Take what you will from my ramblings. Y’all have a goodern.
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There is a 2 part documentary call The Dark Money Game on HBO that is a pretty accurate description of how both parties have become corrupted. The corruption has been on steroids since the oddly named “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision. I recommend the documentary.
It also annoys the heck out of me when the money I paid in is called an ‘entitlement’ . Until money is taken out of the game the only people being represented are the people that have the money.
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