Political Parties, Part II
(part i here)
At first glance, this issue reveals corruption to the core. There is no justice in the GOP taking the vote completely away from the American people as to who should represent the party in the presidential elections. But wait, we’re forgetting something...the GOP is a private organization. They are not officially a government organization (even though we all know they receive boatloads upon boatloads of money through the public trough, both directly and indirectly).
At first glance, this issue reveals corruption to the core. There is no justice in the GOP taking the vote completely away from the American people as to who should represent the party in the presidential elections. But wait, we’re forgetting something...the GOP is a private organization. They are not officially a government organization (even though we all know they receive boatloads upon boatloads of money through the public trough, both directly and indirectly).
If I were to start the Spurious Political Party tomorrow, I could make whatever rules I want, yes? I could decide that upon the completion of the SPP primaries, the party nomination is now entirely my choice, votes be damned. Thanks for your votes, but I’ll decide who represents the SPP! There is nothing inherently immoral in that. The only problem is that anyone who voted in those primaries would realize that their vote was totally meaningless, and would move on to another party.
Aha! So, the trick, as a party leader, is to give the people just enough of a say that they will continue to participate in the primaries and continue to donate time and money to keep us in power. The only thing left is to convince everyone that we are the only option if they don’t want to go with that other party. I’m OK with being the lesser of two evils if that keeps enough people on my side to stay in power!
Really, American people? This is the system in which you continue to voluntarily participate?
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