The Democratic Primary and its local impact..

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2008-05-04 06:20pm

As many of you know, I live in Evansville, Indiana.

Normally, no one would give a shit as Indiana is pretty much the prototypical 'flyover state' that's reliably Republican.
But this week, we're on the map because of the Democratic primaries.

Now I've already cast my vote for Barack Obama, but I'll admit that a case can be made for supporting Hillary Clinton.
The problem is that the huge majority of Hillary supporters who post at my local paper's site either have failed to do so, or admit to being Repubs who'll vote for her in May and McCain in November.

It's actually depressing, as I've always believed that Hoosiers (yes, that's what we call ourselves. We're not 'Indianans') could look beyond the bullshit.

But apparently we can not.
Going by the comments posted on the election articles at my local paper's
website, most of my fellow hoosiers are either Kool-Aid swallowing dittoheads or Hilbots who can't make a logical case for Hillary.

I just don't know whether to laugh, cry, or show up at the next dittohead meeting with an AK

.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2008-05-04 06:29pm

This implies there's much of a difference between 'With Us Or Aganist Us' Clinton or the Republicans and their dittohead hordes. She's run as a Republican; is it a surprise she's attracting such?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-05-04 06:35pm

It's infuriating that none of the news coverage of this race mentions the fact that Republicans are trying to influence the Democratic primaries.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2008-05-04 06:40pm

Darth Wong wrote:It's infuriating that none of the news coverage of this race mentions the fact that Republicans are trying to influence the Democratic primaries.

It's generally mentioned twice a week, in my experience, on cable news, but always only on Olberman's Countdown. The proverbial candle in the darkness, cursing up a storm.

But that helps McCain. And as Chris Matthews put it, 'We're his base'.

Ritterin Sophia · Post by **Ritterin Sophia** » 2008-05-04 06:55pm

SirNitram wrote:This implies there's much of a difference between 'With Us Or Aganist Us' Clinton or the Republicans and their dittohead hordes. She's run as a Republican; is it a surprise she's attracting such?

Don't forget Limbaughs Operation Chaos, slimy little piece of shit.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2008-05-04 07:30pm

General Schatten wrote:
SirNitram wrote:This implies there's much of a difference between 'With Us Or Aganist Us' Clinton or the Republicans and their dittohead hordes. She's run as a Republican; is it a surprise she's attracting such?
Don't forget Limbaughs Operation Chaos, slimy little piece of shit.

Given that Hillary is basically endorsing McCain.. Calling him past the CiC threshold, using his talking points, using his policies.. That's not too far from legitimate. Especially when Hillary goes on O'Rly and Bill goes on Limburger.

The riots thing should have FBI agents on the lawn, but never against a rightwing gasbag.

Ohma · Post by **Ohma** » 2008-05-05 01:48am

General Schatten wrote:Don't forget Limbaughs Operation Chaos, slimy little piece of shit.

I still can't believe that's actually considered legal. Yeah, there are states that have open primaries, and you can just change your party affiliation on your voters registration, not to mention that enforcing any law against "voting for an opposing party candidate because you think they would be easier for your own party's to run against" would be nigh impossible.

But I would think that encouraging people to abuse the democratic process for their own ends would be at least on the level of incitement to riot.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2008-05-05 02:09am

Maybe they should ask anyone wanting to join a political party affiliation within 30-90 days of the primary to pay a certain fee. That would tend to deter at least some of the people jumping over to cause havoc, or at least encourage people to get out registering people into the party beforehand.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2008-05-05 03:14am

Guardsman Bass wrote:Maybe they should ask anyone wanting to join a political party affiliation within 30-90 days of the primary to pay a certain fee. That would tend to deter at least some of the people jumping over to cause havoc, or at least encourage people to get out registering people into the party beforehand.

That would probably be declared an illegal poll tax, as primary elections are actually conducted and paid for by the states and Federal laws forbid poll taxes.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2008-05-05 03:43am

Glocksman wrote:
Guardsman Bass wrote:Maybe they should ask anyone wanting to join a political party affiliation within 30-90 days of the primary to pay a certain fee. That would tend to deter at least some of the people jumping over to cause havoc, or at least encourage people to get out registering people into the party beforehand.
That would probably be declared an illegal poll tax, as primary elections are actually conducted and paid for by the states and Federal laws forbid poll taxes.

Good point. But then, perhaps the political parties themselves should serve as the gatekeepers to their membership (i.e, you couldn't simply say "Republican" or "Democrat" when you register to vote; you would have to have proof of membership or something like that), and pay for their own bloody primaries (why should the state pay for them, anyways? It's not as if constitutional law states that the right to vote in a primary must not be infringed; the only time that I know of that the federal government directly stepped in and said "thou shalt not" was with regards to the racially-segregated primaries in the Democrat-dominated South of the early twentieth century).