So Hillary will win today, but does that mean we're done with this nomination process?
all i see on my FB feed are how the NY primary is "rigged" because not open to independents, or 100k registered Dems aren't being allowed to vote...
is this a new thing? or how it's always been?
No, not a new thing at all. The 100k people being purged or whatever the story is, of course very troubling. It can and does happen, and it looks like they can cast provisionals, but still shitty.
But the closed primary is nothing new, and in my opinion, it is what every contest in every state should be. Caucuses are clownshows that are probably the worst way to get a representative group of voters.
But the important part to me is this. Remember that primaries are not elections. They are a process that an established political party uses to nominate the candidate they think will be the strongest to win for them in the actual election.
All this moaning and groaning, and yes manipulation by Trump and Sanders is really annoying to me.
A closed primary makes sense in a few ways. One, it drives voter registration to your party for the general. If you have to be a Dem or Rep to vote in the primary, it gets people that might not chose a party, to take a side and hopefully be a valuable member for years to come.
Second, it cuts out the shennanigans. No offense to bernie people here, but Michigan was most likely lost because of Dems so sure hillary would win that something like 7% of voters crossed over to be spoilers on the republican side. And I'm sure vice versa.
How does this seem like its furthering the whole "democracy" argument being made?
And lastly, i think its the best way for us to finally get to a viable third, or even fourth party system! If every contest was a closed primary, the large number of Indys that now exist would be much more likely to rise up and create a real legitimate new party, that they could fund, run, and make rules for just like the two main parties do now.