Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Tweaking the Primaries

Yesterday, in the Super Tuesday primaries, The Donald won Massachusetts and Hillary won Alabama.

That should fall under the "who gives a shit" category. The Democrats haven't won Alabama in forty years. The Republicans haven't won Massachusetts in 32 years.

What I propose is that a state's primary delegates be adjusted based on whether or not a state's electors vote for the party's candidates. It work work like this:

Last five elections for your team: 120% of the normal delegate count. Four out of last five elections: 100%. Three out of last five elections: 80%. Two out of last five elections: 60%. One out of last five elections: 40%. None out of last five elections: 20%.

It would also save some money, annoy people less with stupid attack ads, and drive home to the local parties that if you can't turn out the vote when it matters, then why should anyone give a shit whom you think should run.

On the other side of the coin, one could argue that it might reduce any moderating influence, but how has that worked out so far?

7 comments:

  1. 538 addressed a similar question about the theory that Bernie has won blue states but HRC has won blue states. First, it's not true (Iowa and Nevada, for example), and secondly, wait for blue states like NY and NJ (hint, they aren't mostly white).

    I like Bernie, but the nominee is HRC. Now it's Bernie's job to drive out his support for the whole Democrat ballot, cause that's the only way his ideas will get any hearing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernie's ideas won't get a hearing. Hillary is as much a tool of and in bed with the Oligarchy as was her husband and Dubya.

    And yes, Obama.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, they are all in bed. Simply put, if the D's don't learn from this election, they will get run in 2020...Bernie has a movement that he might be able to harness to start movement in the correct direction.

    I'm not overconfident, but I can hope.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, this is too sweet for words. Marco Rubio is running an ad promising to "defund the sanctuary cities"...illustrating it with a picture of Detroit.

    Six days before the Michigan primary.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sanders "job" is to keep fighting for the nomination. That will be his job until it's a mathematical impossibility. It's always been a long shot. But the March 1 results really weren't that bad for him, all things considered.

    Clinton is still a disaster waiting to happen. She is uniquely capable of losing to Trump. I'm not saying she **will** lose to him, but she puts a lot of people off.

    ReplyDelete
  6. While it's not quite as extreme as you suggest, the Democratic delegate count for each state is proportional to their votes in the last three presidential elections. There's also some bonuses in the form of both pledged and unpledged spots for congressional representatives and state legislators, which is meant to reward the local parties for getting people elected to the lower spots and building up a base of potential future candidates. It's a balance between wanting to bias toward states that overall promote Democratic victories (which if you think about it should mean battleground rather than secure states, which could have unfortunate effects of pushing people to be too centrist) and trying to keep the 'red' states involved, because you want them to still come out for down-ballot races and maybe turn purplish.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It seems that the system this year has excelled in picking The Candidate Most Likely to Lose to The Other Side.

    Clinton just doens't have baggage, she's dragging a fucking freight train behind her.

    Trump: Braggart, con man, statist, borderline crook, crypto-fascist and white supremacist.

    Pass the whiskey.

    ReplyDelete

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