Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Trump Administration Republicans to scrap primaries and caucuses

I can't believe you would claim that! Have you been living under a rock? Or in Moscow? How could any American think this?

Primary schedule

I made a mistake. I should have said that when a state has it's primary the voting by the political parties, Democrat, Republican, and third parties, is done on the same day.

Trump at the moment is seen either favorable or very favorable by 87% of republicans. 11% view Trump somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable. Question 47A.

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/3gj4ffirhi/econTabReport.pdf

Walsh and Weld would be doing great to get 5% of the vote. Only 11% of Republicans have either a very or somewhat favorable view of Weld, Welsh doesn't even show up. 82% of all Republicans want Trump to run for reelection. Question 65.

As for going third party, it isn't that easy. I help Perot do it twice and know. There such a thing as ballot access which means petitions, signatures, verification of those signatures, 50 different state laws to get on the ballot, 50 different amount of signatures required, 50 different time limits to accomplish the task.

Only the Libertarian Party was on the ballot in all 50 states, the Green Party in 44 states, Castle in 27, De La Fuente in 15, McMullen on 10 and so on.

Fact is unless a third party candidate has money, Perot did, he has no name recognition and no way to get out his message. Hillary raised and spend 1.191 billion, Trump 646.8 million in 2016. All other third party candidates combined spent 6 million. When you're outspent approximately 2 billion to 6 million, you're not going attract much attention.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidential-campaign-fundraising/

The DNC is blackballing any campaign shops for any future party work if they help a progressive leftist primary challenger in the 2020 primaries.

But yeah, those lame republicans....

I don't think anyone here was giving the DNC a free pass on that.
It's not binary. We are perfectly capable of looking askance at both.
We are also perfectly capable of wrestling that power AWAY FROM those numbskulls when the time comes, too.

But as long as Trump and the Party of Trump hold all the cards, we can't do s***.

The most important thing we can do right now is not elect Biden. A man who has never met a can he couldn't kick down the road. If we imagine we are going to change the Democratic Party then that change requires that we nominate a progressive candidate.

If we cannot change ourselves then we cannot change the party.

I should probably practice what I preach and register as a Democrat...I will then at least get to actively vote against him.

Republicans don't need a primary, they are expensive and divisive. They have Trump. Everybody that's anybody is all in with Trump.

We blue voters have got us a big one coming up. I'd like to see Warren knock Biden out of first place. Then if somebody else knocked her out of first place it would be a genuine horse race. The fun begins in February.

I'm interested in seeing how that nasty little bit of work stands up to time. It looks like a great way to churn up third party candidates.

Thanks for gathering the numbers Perotista! they further bear out the lack of any need to have primaries.

A serious challenge to a sitting president has been harmful in the general election. If the best challenge to Trump is Weld and Walsh, they're not serious challengers. Regardless, here's the history.

Estes Kefauver challenged Truman in 1952, Truman withdrew with the nomination going to Stevenson. Stevenson lost to Eisenhower.

McCarthy challenged LBJ in 1968, LBJ withdrew with Humphrey receiving the nomination. Humphrey lost to Nixon.

Reagan challenged Ford in 1976, Ford won renomination, then lost to Jimmy Carter.

Ted Kennedy challenged Carter in 1980, Carter won the renomination, then lost to Reagan.

Pat Buchanan challenged G.H.W. Bush in 1992, Bush defeated him winning renomination, but lost to Bill Clinton in the general.

History hasn't been kind to sitting presidents who receive serious challenges to their renomination. Usually the reason they do receive a challenge is the sitting president is seen as weak and likely to lose the general. Which has happened 5 times since WWII.

Well said.