And over the weekend, I opened up The Kansas City Star and saw a sidebar of interviews. When asked if they were going to vote Tuesday, all but one dismissed the primary as unimportant, they are too busy, blah blah blah.
Those four people who can't be bothered, need to be bitch-slapped. Now granted, not everyone grew up with grandparents who sat on the county elections board, and chaired their respective parties in their little county. Not everyone has had the mantra of the local election intoned upon them. I have. And I intend to keep spreading the word until someone besides me gets it!!!
I would like to make the case that the primary election is the most important election. Before anyone gets to face us in the general, they had to walk neighborhoods and attend rallies and ice-cream socials and box suppers and High-school sporting events (hit two communities at once doing that) and actually getting a feel for their constituency.
If we are lucky, 10 percent of our fellow citizens will come out to a summer primary to select the major candidates for each party to stand for election in the general, in the fall.
It makes me livid when a voter proclaims the primaries too minor to waste his precious time on. Five will get you ten, when the general heats up, he complains that the General election is a real "Sophie's Choice." Then he will wax on about hating to be "forced to select between the lesser of two evils...just to exercise his god-damned constitutionally guaranteed right to vote!"
On many times I have asked such people if they voted in the primary. This is usually met with a blank stare. Followed by a tap-dance about the General election being the important one.
No, it is not. (And we won't even get into the electoral college usurping your vote in every presidential election.) Before we decide between us, we have to decide amongst ourselves who we want to bear our message. At it's best, at it's finest, at it's core, populist roots; this is the way politics is supposed to happen in a representative democracy.
I have been going on about this for a while now - my opinion is easy to find on this subject so I won't repeat the same things ad nauseum. I'm not preaching talking points, I'm examining truths, and repeating them on occasion.
- The lower level the election, the greater the impact that official can have on your life and well-being (No Governor ever did the damage a bad sherrif can, and no president ever damaged a state like a governor can. See the administration of Matt Blunt in Missouri, currently playing.)
- The more people in a crowded primary race, the more passion engendered by the issues that focus on that seat.
- Now think about ten people you know. Now pick the stupidest one. When the primary has a 10% turnout, chances are your stupidest equaintance is making decisions for you.
- If you don't vote in the primary, don't bitch about your choices in the General.
