This Tuesday, Washington voters head to the polls to make their primary picks up and down the state and federal ballots—with the notable exception of the presidential primaries—held far back in March. Primaries have become something of a controversial process in themselves, with recent decades witness to contests which produced candidates that their own parties’ majorities did not like. It is an interesting paradox. It seems—granted, not always—that the more democratic the process, the less are the eventual nominees members of their parties “mainstream.” This is, at least, a prevailing argument among politicos and other talking heads who claim to know what policy positions count as “mainstream”—even though it stands to great reason that a party’s “mainstream” is not a static set of policy prescriptions or stakeholder alliances, but instead is always a moving target that now, in the age of popular primaries, actually reflects the will of a given party’s average (or “composite”) member.
As Washingtonians get out the vote—and we at CADF vociferously urge you to vote because, well, “teamwork makes the dream work”—it behooves those voting to remember that it is they who decide the “mainstream” of their parties, and that if one faction or another wishes to pursue a different “mainstream,” they may do so either through persuasion or by founding a new party to reflect that faction’s ideological, philosophical, and policy orthodoxy. This may seem an obvious argument, but we believe it greatly worth iterating in light of the recent shakeup in the presidential race, which in the last month especially has featured some particularly undemocratic moves.
As Washingtonians go to the primary polls early next week, we urge them to remember that popular primaries were for most of American history not remotely the norm. Such contests really only began in earnest in the 1950s, and it took until the 1970s for it to become the default process. With the concept under increasing assault, those who wish to preserve should make sure to get to their polling stations and fulfill their core civic duty. Even in primaries, apathy and low turnout will only louden the voices of those who wish to see a return to the backroom dealings that typified the “primaries” of yesteryear.
Alki,
Sam Spiegelman