We’re rooting for a train wreck. Here’s hoping that more and more hell breaks loose over Florida’s plan to hold its primary election on Jan. 29, 2008. With a little luck, and some steady arrogance, national Democrats and Republicans will act on threats to disenfranchise voters in the nation’s fourth largest state for not doing as they’re told.
Yeah, we’re hoping for calamity because it might be just the thing to give Unity08 a serious toehold in the 2008 general election. What is Unity08? A plausible antidote to domineering, self-serving two-party politics, among other things.
In case you enjoyed your long weekend, blissfully ignoring politics, the Democratic presidential candidates announced that they plan to boycott Florida over the timing of its primary election. The Democratic and Republican National Committees also threaten to disenfranchise Florida primary voters at their conventions, if the state votes out of turn.
These national-party players have the primaries set up just the way they like them. They aren’t about to let people decide something this big for themselves. That Florida has about five times as many people as Iowa means diddly to them. The status quo works for their interests.
John Edwards said Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada need to vote first because “in these states ideas count, not just money.” Of course, Edwards and the other Democratic candidates plan to continue raising money in Florida, regardless of when it holds its primary election. Their boycott applies only to campaign appearances. In other words, they’re happy to continue taking our money so they can talk about ideas elsewhere. And after voters in other states have cast ballots based on ideas, Edwards and the other Dems can come back here and go on with platitudes and hollow ad campaigns.
Never mind trying to devise a system where more of us get a chance to look them in the eye and vote based on their ideas. Maybe something involving the Internet? That’s inconvenient. We just need to shut up and vote when they say we’re ready.
Check out Unity08, then call the Florida Democratic and Republican parties and urge them to stick by their guns and press the issue. With any luck, they’ll roll this rotten primary system right off a cliff.