I attended the Davis County Republican Party organizing convention on Saturday. There was one very surprising outcome for me from attending. Senator Bob Bennett spoke at the conventions and by the end of his speech I realized that I could potentially vote for him in 2010 if he survives the Republican nominating convention and primary (if necessary) next year. I’m still absolutely sure that there must be at least half a dozen Republican politicians in this state that would be far better for the state than Senator Bennett can be he is still better than the majority of likely Democrat and third party candidates. Even if he were running unopposed I could not vote for our sitting senator at the Republican nominating convention but I may find that he is the best available option in the general election if he is the Republican nominee.
How’s that for a ringing endorsement.
David,
I disagree that he is better than the majority of likely Democratic candidates since you don’t know who they are yet.
Just wait David, our candidate may just be your candidate.
Stranger things have happened.
I’ll give you that Rob. You’ll certainly know before I do who the Democratic candidate will be and I will definitely consider whoever you have fairly – but I will be working as hard as I can to ensure that whoever the Democrats nominate will not be running against our incumbent.
Of necessity, our political process is a winnowing process where various elimination rounds produce the final candidates that are the only ones most voters will ever take an opportunity to vote for (or against). This is true regardless of the methods used in those elimination rounds (i.e. caucus, primary, runoff, instant runoff, etc).
The major parties play a key role in this process, but they also work hard to protect their ability to play that role and to limit the efficacy of any would-be competitor organizations. Over the years they have successfully created extremely high barriers to successful entry into this ‘market.’ It should not be surprising that there are those that feel disenfranchised by this system.
Still, any kind of candidate elimination process eventually produces — with very few exceptions — only two or fewer viable candidates. At that level, few voters find all facets of any candidate appealing. Sometimes they feel good about the choice they are making and sometimes they are merely choosing the lesser of two evils. In a pluralistic society, it is impossible to produce a candidate that absolutely thrills everyone.
If we ever do produce a candidate that everyone absolutely adores, it means that we’re on our way to a very scary outcome.
True, the process of elimination is a necessary element of the political process. I believe that one of the major reasons that third parties field so few viable candidates is that the best candidates learn how to work within one of the major parties. That’s one of the things that I have been learning as I have gone from being a dedicated party-independent conservative voter to being an active participant in the winnowing process in the Republican party. My goals have not changed, but I have abandoned the idea that we can or should ignore the party system in our quest for Camelot (Zion, Utopia, Shangri-La – take your pick).