Thursday, May 5, 2016

Pity Party at Bernie's


Rant coming! I am really quite weary of the whining about our "rigged" primary system. Yes, it's ramshackle and inequitable and inefficient and could benefit greatly from reform and uniformization. But it's still one of the only systems in the world that gives (sometimes and in some places) ordinary, unaffiliated citizens the opportunity to participate in choosing a major party's leader/candidate. In most places party elites and regular party members ONLY have any voice. One of the "fairest" of such "cartel systems" is in place for Britain's Labour Party, but even there, MPs decide who runs and only about 500,000 party members are eligible to vote.

Neither Bernie Sanders nor Donald Trump would/could have been nominated for party leadership in such a closed system. They would have had to form their own parliamentary party, with all its infrastructure, etc., get elected as leader of said party, and THEN present candidates in every constituency in order to have any hope of winning a majority in parliament and thus becoming Prime Minister. The universe is NOT picking on anyone in particular, people. It's just muddling along in all its messy imperfection. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves; do what you can to fix what you can. And. Get. Over. It.

















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