(I feel like this should be a regular series.) I am positive that many of my students following the primary elections thought me a huge, stinking liar while following the fall of Eric Cantor. For they have been told that Virginia (enter airy, idealic music and images of birds fluttering and chirping over the dawning of a new day over a pastoral landscape) has open primaries that use public declaration. And that is it. So then, pray tell, how is it that Ed Gillespie was nominated as the GOP's candidate for the US Senate against Senator Mark Warner in a closed-door, members-only convention? Yeah, I lied. So did the textbook. I mean, if you look at Politico's analysis of the primaries, it gets even more complex. Whaaattt? Only three Congressional District primaries are finalized? Aren't there, like, 11 districts in VA? And theoretically at least two candidates in each? This is super-confusing... I should see the results of 22 primaries. Okay. So let's get some truth moving here. 1.) The parties decide how to nominate their candidates. That's right, you heard me. The parties. According to Larry Sabato, most states decide to consistently use primary elections. But, because primaries are a joint operation by the parties and the state political bodies (legislature and executive bureaucracy) and are vehicles to nominate the best possible candidate to win, the rules are not standardized nationwide. In fact, they are not even standardized (in Virginia) from district to district. Virginia gives a deference to the party machinery to decide in a race-by-race... even a district-by-district manner... how best to nominate someone to represent that parties' wishes in the general election. 7What is amusing about this is that on 'election day,' I forgot to vote. I can't believe it, because I am usually all over primaries.
After all, I tell my kids that this is the most important election. Primaries have low voter-turnout rates because people don't care, so the loyal partisan voters show up and give us extremly polarized candidates (See Eric Cantor... who as we all know lost, but lost not just because of immigration, but also due to some really partisan re-districting of a "more Red, more Tea Party" VA-7... and maybe lost because he was not as loyal to the Tea Party movement in VA's state legislature... who sought revenge for some anti-Tea Party moves Cantor made in the run up to the 2014 primaries. SOOO complex here. It's politics, remember.) And since we are talking most important election, the dreaded six-year itch election (second mid-term election of a two-term POTUS) in which sea changes are possible... and the party out of power tries to get a mandate from the people that the party in power is on their way out in the next presidential election... all the people better show up and vote. Well, what this tells me is that had I shown up to my polling station... had I been paying attention... I would have been wasting my time because the party, despite it's open primary format, decided it wasn't about me having a choice. The party (and in my case, I live in VA-11) decided to stick closer to the loyal Republican voters and do a convention. I can't raid the ticket; I can't pick a more (or less) moderate candidate. I can't do anything because I am not a member of either party. I don't get a voice. 2.) This whole primary thing here in VA is un-democratic. Best part is, if I want to do something about it, I either have to run for office... start a grassroots campaign... create a special interest group... donate money to someone's campaign... find a write-in candidate... or hope for the end of the world as we know it. Basically, I have a snowball's chance. And it's hot here in VA. The primary process in Virginia is written to get the best candidate elected for each party, and the party gets the State legislature to write laws that make this possible... why? Because the elected members themselves benefit from a less inclusive election process. In essence: Self governance doesn't work best. I feel like that is one of Aesop's lost fables.
1 Comment
7/29/2015 02:46:17 am
What is even more frustrating is that, as AP teachers, we know the College Board expects us to teach the theory of certain things, yet they are not always in tune with the reality of things. What's an AP Gov teacher to do?!
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Jen's bookshelf: nerdcation
I want to start by thanking Mr. Snowden and Mr. Greenwald for their uncompromising dedication to giving the NSA violations air time and transparency.
I wanted to share some of the most important things I have learned from this book bef...
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nerdcation and to-read
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nerdcation and to-read
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nerdcation and to-read
AuthorI lovgov. LOVE IT! I love teaching government, learning about it, debating, discussing, asking questions about government. And not the standard boiler plate questions, but the hard ones that are NOT in the books. Archives
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