At 11:06 AM -0400 12/8/04, Nathan Newman wrote:
>It's is actually quite easy for groups to run candidates for office in the
>United States in the primaries of either party.
-That's the problem. People who oppose the platform of the party (if -it had a platform) can try to hijack the party. This isn't a bug, its -the purpose of the system. This has happened many times in recent -history.
Actually, no, Bill, it's the result of a successful civil rights movement, a result that was hard fought for with the lives of countless southern blacks who died in the swamps of Mississippi and other places to accomplish.
For most of American history, parties were closed in many ways, including by excluding those of the wrong race. It took legal suits and, more importantly, struggles by groups like the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to establish the principle that anyone had the right to enter a primary to run for office. This was followed by mobilization by the McCarthy-Kennedy campaigns of 1968 and McGovern in 1972 to establish that primaries, rather than closed party caucuses, would pick the nominee for President.
You may disagree with the choice of progressives in the United States to fight for open primaries-- there are some reasonable arguments on the downsides, -- but the result is assuredly the product of progressive goals and struggle.
-- Nathan Newman