I am rather fascinated by the sky is falling mentality of people such as Pat Thoresen of Marysville, as shared in his Oct. 16 letter entitled “Primary voting system: End of democracy?” The fact of the matter is that the primary system we have in place today is a joke. The true threat to democracy comes when one political party can openly and blatantly meddle in the internal workings of another party. Case in point: the 1996 gubernatorial race, in which I believe Ellen Craswell won the GOP nod due to concerted crossover Democrat voters, thus leaving the GOP with the weaker of two candidates. I fully support the idea of either the primaries being closed to only registered party faithful, or for the parties to do their nominations in caucus or convention. For if the primaries are open to all, as they are now, why bother having them at all? Why not just do away with the primaries and just go straight to the general election?
I support the courts’ decision in this matter. As the courts have ruled, political parties have the right to decide for themselves, free of outside tampering, who their standard bearers should be.
End of democracy? No, common sense dictates that to do away with blanket primaries can only strengthen democracy.
Everett
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