By OB Joe / OB Rag
You know it. I’m a California Primary voter and I’m pretty pissed off!
The Primary is already over – and I haven’t even voted yet. And neither have my fellow 8 million California voters.
The candidates have been selected – yet, the largest state in the Union has not spoken.
Oh, I know, there are some who still think Bernie can get the nomination – but the real math is not there – and I’m a Bernie supporter! I observed an MSNBC breakdown of the numbers – and Sanders would have to score REAL big in all the remaining primaries – short of a miracle – it will be Hillary Clinton for the Democrats.
I really wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist – and I was among the 13,000 San Diegans who came out to support him when he was in town not too long ago. But by now, it’s been decided.
I feel totally disenfranchised and disheartened. Our California votes just don’t count. And neither do the votes in the other 4 states that have their Primaries on June 7th: New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana.
Except for the candidates and propositions on the down-ballot, the Presidential Primary is a futile exercise.
It simply is just not fair. California has 39 million inhabitants. It has the 5th largest economy in the world. Yet – on the issue of who gets the different political party nominations for President – California does not count.
The entire primary system is screwed up.
We have enough problems getting people out to vote. Without them now feeling disenfranchised.
I figure close to 8 million Californians will or could vote on June 7th. If we look at the last California Presidential Primary in June 2012 – 5,328,000 people voted, a dismal 31.1% of registered voters.
Okay, so there wasn’t too much competition on the Presidential level. So, let’s look at the California Primary of 2008. In that vote, 9,058,000 Californians voted – the largest popular vote in the state’s history. Again, however, that represented only 58% of registered voters, and clearly wasn’t the highest percentage-wise. That was in the 1980 Primary, when over 63% of registered voters did the ballot thing.
Another contested Presidential year was in 2000, when 7,883,000 Californians voted in the Primary (54% of registered voters).
By the way, that 2000 Primary was held in March, and the 2008 Primary vote was in early February.
The current California primary is just too damn late in the season. June is not soon enough – if we keep the current system.
Our state had primaries during the month of March in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2008. Why can’t we do that again?
Again, the entire national primary system needs to be reformed. And the election cycle is just too crazy long. Other countries have only a few months of electioneering – or even just a few weeks.
Why not have one month of primaries, where every Tuesday a quarter of the states vote?
The Presidential Primary and Election cycle is when we’re supposed to renew our flailing democracy, but when millions of voters are disenfranchised by the very Primary system that is supposed to help sow those seeds of democracy, then the entire Voting Structure continues to break down.
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“The entire primary system is screwed up.” Only the primary system? The whole voting system is screwed up. The electoral college system. The super delegates. Gerrymandered districts. Winner take all. It’s all an antiquated mess, yet nobody seems to want to do anything about it. Ross Perot was right. We need to start over with a whole new Constitution.
You are so right the whole political system is ridiculous. One ballot one vote true democracy must be reinstated!
The voting mess brings big money to media in the form of perpetual campaigning, stories exploiting major and minor conflicts, the appearance of reality television (remember Joe the Plumber and Palin?) that encourages people to stay tuned in. I’ve passed up watching and reading Trump stories for weeks now; it’s just cooked up trash (or British tabloid stories). The Demos are only marginally better at governing humanely than the Republicans and Bernie gets my vote, no matter that California has been ignored in this country since it went Democratic.
Hi, OB Joe – I heard some of those news reports too; and that’s just what, finally, pushed me off the fence as to who I’ll be voting for, for President.
Every CA voter ought to be cheesed off, and rightly so, at those folks: they’ve got a nerve, proclaiming, in so many words, a fait accompli (sic) – while The Golden State HAS NOT YET SPOKEN.
(Note: I very, very rarely resort to caps in my comments, but this is one such…)
I can only speak for myself, of course; however – I will NOT see my state, the most populous in the Union, be disrespected in such a fashion. Accordingly, I will be voting for Bernie, come Primary Day.
As you rightly point out, Joe, there’s a lot of stuff on our CA ballot this time around that needs deciding by us, the voters. I’ve local and state reps to replace, and a new US Senator (still on the fence there), and propositions to slog through.
This is where we get to say something about it all. This is our franchise, and we need to WORK it. CA believes in REAL governance, not the sort that other state capitals (and one national one) only futz around and merely play at.
So, Joe, whatever problems the current system has (that said, I still think CA’s a lot better off than other places), know this: the only person who can disenfranchise you, is YOU. DON’T.
I’ll be at my local polling place next month, to lend my humble little note to the greater voice of our state.
So should you! :-)
One big reason the system is screwed up is because it’s been altered piecemeal, with no overall plan. Primaries, begun as closed elections within the 2 main parties, are now same as the general election, only more minor. Those other problems noted above by Mr. Lawrence have been allowed to become de rigueur further fowling things up. It doesn’t take a full Constitutional Convention, but YES, changes absolutely should be made!
But Mr. OB Joe has it wrong about the Jun 7 primaries not counting. It’s simple math: 3+2+1 is the same as 1+2+3; the order of gaining delegates doesn’t matter. The only way to truly do it fairly is to have ALL primaries on the same day. Wait… isn’t that what we already do in November?
Actually, it does matter a lot. The earlier a primary is, the larger the chance of it dramatically affecting later primaries. And super-liberal states vote last for the most part.
Please still vote! It actually matters.
1-2) the worst vote is: none, or the ‘lesser evil’ mentality – where either vote benefits the status quo elite – at the majority’s expense.
if you like a candidate – vote for them.
3) not on the ballot? write them in.
or,
4) vote a ‘third party’ candidate.
do NOT give in to excessively ‘compromised’ candidates who are there primarily to feather their own nest, & the nests of their big money contributer/bosses.
better to go down fighting for what’s right – then giving in to what is obviously wrong.
Vaya con Dios
tj, I agree with you on this. The old political ‘wisdom’ is: vote for practicality in the general election; vote your conscience in the primary.
Yes, it’s true that the math is not on Bernie’s side to clinch the nomination before the convention, but the math is not on Hillary’s side based on pledged delegates alone, either, and superdelegates don’t count until the convention…and they can still change their minds. THERE IS STILL HOPE that Bernie can win! Your vote matters now more than ever!
Yes! The bottom line is don’t quit until it’s over.
Michael,
thanks for the kind words.
a proven bad ‘representative’ / person / candidate, (defiant & unrepentant) – favoring fractional extremes – & at the EXPENSE of the citizen majority – should NEVER get our vote.
as long as we are still breathing – it’s not over.
Vaya con Dios