Ever wonder why everyone is such a nutjob in Congress? It is because of the party primary system. Most seats in the House and in the Senate are pretty safe for either the Democratic or the Republican primary. This usually means the action is at the primary election stage where the parties are trying to pick their nominees.
Primary elections are low voter turnout where only the most nut-jobish, angry people vote. For example, as a normal person, I've voted in 5 general elections and 0 primaries. This is where the most-left leaning and most-right leaning people get their chance to ruin the country. Usually, to win the nomination, candidates have to say crazy things...like...the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional...notice all the mega-right wing stuff Mittens has to say. With all this Tea party nonsense, the real action now is in the primary and not the general election which means that the most extreme candidates are often the candidates for the general election. Then they become our elected officials are go crazy and think that everything is the end of the world.
Here are some examples of how dumb people are who go crazy in these primary elections.
On the right: There are lots of people who don't think that dollars aren't legal tender...wtf do you want to be paid in? beaver pelts?
On the left: the state attorney general couldn't get rid of the nuclear power plant in our state because there is a federal law allowing that power plant (which pre-empts state action for you non-law people)...therefore, he sucks and we should get rid of him.
The Republicans are getting pretty good at this nonsense. They selected "witch-lady" Christine O'Donnell over the far more electable Mike Castle for the 2010 DE Senate Race. They unseated conservative Utah Senator Bob Bennett because he wasn't super mega-conservative enough. Now they are trying to get rid of Sens. Orrin Hatch and Dick Lugar for not punching Obama in the face or something... They also lost NY-25 this way...because the second most conservative member of the NY legislature as their congressional nominee was not conservative enough. So...pretty much to win a Republican primary...you have to think that women have to stay virgins until marriage, poor people should just die, immigrants should get the fuck out, and the world is flat. (I'm exaggerating...or am I?)
The Democrats are not as good at it so far, but I believe they'll get there. ObamaGirl is now out of love with Obama because he isn't socialist enough or something. Here is a Dem example of trying to do this ideological purity BS...in IL-10 an upper middle class 60%+ Obama District, a 25-year-old guy whose only experience is working for MoveOn.org (a nutjob left-wing organization) ran against a rich, pragmatic business consultant in the Democratic primary. The 25-year old lost! showing that sanity is not dead in the Democratic Party. To win a Democratic primary you have to think that all corporations are evil, all brown people are good and decent (most are but some aren't), everyone is being victimized all the time, all corporations, banks, and rich people are super evil.
Remember when I said the Dems are not as good at it...I lied...the most left-wing Dems voted for fucking Ralph Nader in 2000, handing the election to Bush. Al Gore would've paid off the deficit, protected the environment, not had a wasteful Iraq War...you idiots...(as you can see, I'm a huge Al Gore fan) Gore lost in Florida by about 537 votes. Nader won 97k votes in Florida...
We're totally fucked.
The potential solution is the "top-2 primary" which throws all the candidates, regardless of party onto the same ballot, with the top 2 vote-getters moving on to the general election. Theoretically, this gives more moderate candidates a chance since the whole, wide electorate gets the chance to vote for any of the candidates.
Here are the pitfalls of the top-2 primary system:
1. It destroys 3rd parties from getting attention. This might not be a bad thing (see my Al Gore example). Also, its not like 3rd parties were getting attention anyways.
2. Theoretically, this could happen...lets say that there is a district that is 60% Dem 40% GOP. The candidates could split the vote in the following way.
R1-20%
R2-20%
D1-10%
D2-10%
D3-10%
D4-10%
D5-10%
D6-10%
In this situation, the two Republicans would move on to the general election even though its a 60% Dem district. This is only theoretical, I have yet to find an example where this actually happened.
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