Frank,
I understand the argument put forth for closed primaries. When this
was the subject for debate back in the 60's in Washington State, I
came down on the side of open primaries. While there was claim to
evidence that Republicans were crossing over and supporting
undesirable Democrats, I saw none of, or little of it. It was a smoke
screen, like the more recent claim that people are voting without
being properly registered, the old, "vote early and often" that
haunted Chicago's elections during the regime of mayor John Daley.
But what the political parties told the public was not the discussion
held within the Democratic Party at county and state level. I was not
privy to what went on behind closed republican doors. But what we
Democrats debated was how to strengthen the Two Party System. Closed
primaries were considered to be one very huge hurdle for the so called
Third Parties. Enough of us held the line, and at that time we
continued to hold open primaries. But that did not stop the two major
parties from plotting. They have long maintained that we are a
stronger and more stable government because of having only two major
parties. Naturally that would be the line of those rascals in
control.
I've been away from state politics for some time, declaring myself to
belong to no political party, but currently Washington takes the top
two vote getters, regardless of Party affiliation, and runs them in
the general election. This system seems much more equitable to me, at
least on the surface. But I don't waste much time researching the
system since I am currently holding the position that simply putting a
few good people into a barrel of rotten apples...well, you get my
point.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/21/16, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl, voter suppression is clearly disenfranchisement of the working class.
However there is a real reason to have closed primaries. Take for example a
primary in an open state for party A. Party B could rally enough shill
voters to vote in primary A's primary to nominate a less than electable
candidate. This is a republican strategy that is often touted by Rush
Limbaugh.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2016 12:22 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Empire Strikes Back: Donny and Hill's Big
Night
Sniff, sniff, sniff. Does anyone else smell a rotten stink in the Spring
Air?
But do not worry your pretty little heads, my sweet ones. It can only get
worse, so enjoy the caustic smell as best you can. For the record, it did
not begin this year in Arizona, although the officials should receive a
Bogus Prize for first Bungler of the year.
After Tuesdays election in New York, if we consider allowing only registered
democrats and republicans who signed up last October, to represent an open
democratic election, if that is true, then New York officials should be
instantly awarded the Gold Cup for interference and deception. Interference
through the closure of voting places without notice, and deception because
thousands of citizens who believed they were registered, could not be found
on the official lists of voters.
Are we actually turning back the hands of time to those good old days when
only White Males, over the age of 21, and were Land Holders, could vote. I
mean, isn't that the basis for the great growth of our great nation?
Doesn't it seem right that those who are invested in the Land be entrusted
to make those sorts of decisions that have led us to this place of
greatness? I mean, all the wasted time, energy and lives back in the 60's
when the big push was on to register absolutely everybody, and folks went to
jail for standing up for their beliefs, unless they were so badly beaten
that they could not stand, or were hauled off to the morgue. Wouldn't it
have been more productive to throw a good old Fish Fry? Lots of corn bread,
fried chicken and watermelon, too. But I suppose the thinking of those
greedy rich bastards would be that you can't steal a man's money and still
expect him to foot the cost of a good old Fish Fry. I sometimes stop and
wonder if these super rich rascals think that when the air becomes toxic and
un breathible, and the water is poison and undrinkable, and the grocery
stores are empty, and the land is battered and over heated to where nothing
can grow, I wonder if they really think that they will be able to buy their
way out of this one?
Carl Jarvis
On 4/20/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Empire Strikes Back: Donny and Hill's Big Night Wednesday, 20
April 2016 00:00 By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed Hillary
Clinton is joined on stage by family at her victory rally after
winning New York's Democratic primary, April 19, 2016. (Photo: Chang
W. Lee / The New York Times) "Do you ever get the feeling that the
only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?"
-- Robert Orben It's over, and it wasn't close. It was, in fact, a
wipe-out. The state of New York took the two big-money front-runners
and catapulted them over the moon. Hillary Clinton trounced Bernie
Sanders by more than 15 points, placing her firmly in the driver's
seat for the Democratic nomination.
Clinton's victory margin, however, was left in deep shade by Donald
Trump, who utterly obliterated his remaining two opponents. He beat
John Kasich by
35 points and beat Ted Cruz by 46 points. The Washington Generals do
better against the Harlem Globetrotters most nights.
The delegate math gets pretty bleak going forward for the three
underdog candidates who haven't been featured on television with
dreary regularity over the last three decades. Trump ran the delegate
table -- Cruz picked up no delegates in New York, zero, dot -- while
Kasich looks to maybe pick up a few, which still leaves him several
thousand light years behind his opponents. Clinton picked up 30 more
delegates than Sanders, which puts her in striking distance of the
prize with next week's contests in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland,
Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island coming over the horizon. If she
runs the table and then takes Indiana's 92 delegates on May 3, that's
pretty much the ballgame.
For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election
section, "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."
For the record, this happened:
Presidential primary voters in the five boroughs ran an obstacle
course of ineptitude to cast their ballots: Broken machines, shuttered
precincts and purged voter rolls. The most complaints came from
Brooklyn, where entire sections of poll books listing the names of
eligible voters were reported missing, according to state Attorney General
Eric Schneiderman.
The problems started when early-bird voters in Queens and Brooklyn
arrived at sunrise -- only to find themselves unable to vote. Mayor de
Blasio issued a statement charging that entire buildings and city
blocks of voters were among the 126,000 voters purged from the
Brooklyn books since last fall.
Queens resident George Mack said he arrived at P.S. 52 in Springfield
Gardens to vote right at 6 a.m. He and 50 fellow voters learned all
three on-site machines were broken. Volunteers told voters to place
their ballots in a slot, and they would all get processed later. A
state voter complaint hotline received 562 phone calls and 140 emails
between 6 a.m. and 3:50 p.m.
-- more than four times as many as in the 2012 general election.
"I'm feeling profoundly snuffed," Lexie Smith, 27, a baker from
Bushwick who wanted to cast her ballot for Bernie Sanders on Tuesday -
but instead was instructed to vote via affidavit.
Tammany Hall is alive and well, it seems. Between the purged voter
rolls, the busted machines and the fact that Independents were not
allowed to cast a ballot, it is fair to say that Tuesday's results
were not entirely indicative of the true opinions of New York voters.
This primary/caucus season has been a hot mess from an organizational
standpoint in a number of states, a fact that will make already
frustrated voters even more livid and even less likely to step into the
booth the next time around.
Next Tuesday looks to be a bad day for Sanders, Kasich and Cruz, as
both Trump and Clinton hold commanding leads in the states involved.
Clinton has a solid lead in Pennsylvania and will almost certainly win
Maryland.
Sanders
wants to see it through to California in June, but Clinton's amen
chorus in the "news" media is going to get very loud going forward
about why he needs to exit the race. Meanwhile, reports of the Trump
campaign's demise have, as ever, been greatly exaggerated. After next
week, if the polls hold, his path to the nomination will be eight
lanes wide.
I'm thinking about getting my passport updated. This campaign season
has revealed a great deal about the underbelly of this nation, and the
view isn't pretty. On one side we have a quadruple-bankrupted blowhard
who has turned hate into the coin of the political realm, who has put
forth no concrete policy proposals aside from something about a wall
because it's gonna be great folks, and who thinks September 11 is a
place you can get a Slurpee and some beef jerky. On the other side is
a candidate who voted for the war in Iraq, voted for the Patriot Act,
thinks the Reagans were AIDS activists, and has to walk very slowly
down the block, lest all the Wall Street cash in her pockets falls out
and gets blown by the wind back to the people it was stolen from.
If this is the best these United States can do to choose front-runner
candidates for the highest office in the land, I want no part of it.
"The vine bears three kinds of grapes," wrote Diogenes. "The first of
pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust." I have
arrived at the low place of disgust, and there is no joy in it
whatsoever.
I hear Edinburgh is beautiful this time of year.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
WILLIAM RIVERS PITT
William Rivers Pitt is Truthout's senior editor and lead columnist. He
is also a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of
three
books:
War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know, The Greatest
Sedition Is Silence and House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies,
and America's Ravaged Reputation. His fourth book, The Mass
Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible,
co-written with Dahr Jamail, is available now on Amazon. He lives and
works in New Hampshire.
RELATED STORIES
New York City's Ballot May Cause Confusion at Upcoming Primary By
Tomas Lopez, Brennan Center for Justice | Report William Rivers Pitt |
New York: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning By William Rivers
Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed Millions of New Yorkers Disenfranchised From
Primaries Thanks to State's Restrictive Voting Laws By Amy Goodman,
Democracy Now! | Video Report ________________________________________
Show Comments
Hide Comments
<a href="http://truthout.disqus.com/?url=ref";>View the discussion
thread.</a> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
The Empire Strikes Back: Donny and Hill's Big Night Wednesday, 20
April 2016 00:00 By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
. font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error!
Hyperlink reference not valid.
. Hillary Clinton is joined on stage by family at her victory rally
after winning New York's Democratic primary, April 19, 2016. (Photo:
Chang W. Lee / The New York Times)
. "Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections
is to find out if the polls were right?" -- Robert Orben It's over,
and it wasn't close. It was, in fact, a wipe-out. The state of New
York took the two big-money front-runners and catapulted them over the
moon. Hillary Clinton trounced Bernie Sanders by more than 15 points,
placing her firmly in the driver's seat for the Democratic nomination.
Clinton's victory margin, however, was left in deep shade by Donald
Trump, who utterly obliterated his remaining two opponents. He beat
John Kasich by
35 points and beat Ted Cruz by 46 points. The Washington Generals do
better against the Harlem Globetrotters most nights.
The delegate math gets pretty bleak going forward for the three
underdog candidates who haven't been featured on television with
dreary regularity over the last three decades. Trump ran the delegate
table -- Cruz picked up no delegates in New York, zero, dot -- while
Kasich looks to maybe pick up a few, which still leaves him several
thousand light years behind his opponents. Clinton picked up 30 more
delegates than Sanders, which puts her in striking distance of the
prize with next week's contests in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland,
Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island coming over the horizon. If she
runs the table and then takes Indiana's 92 delegates on May 3, that's
pretty much the ballgame.
For more original Truthout election coverage, check out our election
section, "Beyond the Sound Bites: Election 2016."
For the record, this happened:
Presidential primary voters in the five boroughs ran an obstacle
course of ineptitude to cast their ballots: Broken machines, shuttered
precincts and purged voter rolls. The most complaints came from
Brooklyn, where entire sections of poll books listing the names of
eligible voters were reported missing, according to state Attorney General
Eric Schneiderman.
The problems started when early-bird voters in Queens and Brooklyn
arrived at sunrise -- only to find themselves unable to vote. Mayor de
Blasio issued a statement charging that entire buildings and city
blocks of voters were among the 126,000 voters purged from the
Brooklyn books since last fall.
Queens resident George Mack said he arrived at P.S. 52 in Springfield
Gardens to vote right at 6 a.m. He and 50 fellow voters learned all
three on-site machines were broken. Volunteers told voters to place
their ballots in a slot, and they would all get processed later. A
state voter complaint hotline received 562 phone calls and 140 emails
between 6 a.m. and 3:50 p.m.
-- more than four times as many as in the 2012 general election.
"I'm feeling profoundly snuffed," Lexie Smith, 27, a baker from
Bushwick who wanted to cast her ballot for Bernie Sanders on Tuesday -
but instead was instructed to vote via affidavit.
Tammany Hall is alive and well, it seems. Between the purged voter
rolls, the busted machines and the fact that Independents were not
allowed to cast a ballot, it is fair to say that Tuesday's results
were not entirely indicative of the true opinions of New York voters.
This primary/caucus season has been a hot mess from an organizational
standpoint in a number of states, a fact that will make already
frustrated voters even more livid and even less likely to step into the
booth the next time around.
Next Tuesday looks to be a bad day for Sanders, Kasich and Cruz, as
both Trump and Clinton hold commanding leads in the states involved.
Clinton has a solid lead in Pennsylvania and will almost certainly win
Maryland.
Sanders
wants to see it through to California in June, but Clinton's amen
chorus in the "news" media is going to get very loud going forward
about why he needs to exit the race. Meanwhile, reports of the Trump
campaign's demise have, as ever, been greatly exaggerated. After next
week, if the polls hold, his path to the nomination will be eight
lanes wide.
I'm thinking about getting my passport updated. This campaign season
has revealed a great deal about the underbelly of this nation, and the
view isn't pretty. On one side we have a quadruple-bankrupted blowhard
who has turned hate into the coin of the political realm, who has put
forth no concrete policy proposals aside from something about a wall
because it's gonna be great folks, and who thinks September 11 is a
place you can get a Slurpee and some beef jerky. On the other side is
a candidate who voted for the war in Iraq, voted for the Patriot Act,
thinks the Reagans were AIDS activists, and has to walk very slowly
down the block, lest all the Wall Street cash in her pockets falls out
and gets blown by the wind back to the people it was stolen from.
If this is the best these United States can do to choose front-runner
candidates for the highest office in the land, I want no part of it.
"The vine bears three kinds of grapes," wrote Diogenes. "The first of
pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust." I have
arrived at the low place of disgust, and there is no joy in it
whatsoever.
I hear Edinburgh is beautiful this time of year.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
William Rivers Pitt
William Rivers Pitt is Truthout's senior editor and lead columnist. He
is also a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of
three
books:
War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know, The Greatest
Sedition Is Silence and House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies,
and America's Ravaged Reputation. His fourth book, The Mass
Destruction of Iraq: Why It Is Happening, and Who Is Responsible,
co-written with Dahr Jamail, is available now on Amazon. He lives and
works in New Hampshire.
Related Stories
New York City's Ballot May Cause Confusion at Upcoming Primary By
Tomas Lopez, Brennan Center for Justice | ReportWilliam Rivers Pitt |
New
York: The Beginning of the End of the Beginning By William Rivers
Pitt, Truthout | Op-EdMillions of New Yorkers Disenfranchised From
Primaries Thanks to State's Restrictive Voting Laws By Amy Goodman,
Democracy Now! | Video Report
Show Comments
