Friday, April 21, 2006

Democracy in action?

This little gem comes from the SL Tribune: Salt Lake Tribune - Salt Lake Tribune Home Page: "Normally pragmatic, Utah Democrats try to avoid wasting time and money on the in-party fights that lead to primary elections. But party leaders obviously didn't succeed in discouraging everyone from running against hand-picked favorites. "

So um, the Democratic party avoids that whole pesky representative democracy thing and just has a central committee hand pick their candidates for office? Nice. Sounds like a Communist Party election back in the USSR.

It's in the Tribune, so it must be true.

5 comments:

Neha Rungta said...

So here is a question I have always pondered about, if there are tough primaries in one party than other what does it generally translate for the party? For any kind of office. Any thoughts on that?

Neha Rungta said...

Clarification: Tough primaries for one party and the other party candiadate has it easy. Didn't know if that quite came out right the first time around

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the laugh this morning.

Comparing the SL County Democratic Convention to a Communist Party Election is like comparing Heaven and Hell (with of course Heaven being the Democratic Party).

We can thank the delegates for picking our candidates, and our candidates for deciding to do what is best for the party. An example of this is when Kelly Ann Booth (who had 41% of the vote to Ross Romero's 59%. 60% is needed to avoid a primary) decided to withdraw so that our efforts could be focused on the general election in November. She could have forced a primary, but she put her own best interest aside.

What this really proves is that Democrats are coming together, and working together.

Thanks again for the laugh, and might I suggest that you check your facts better.

Anonymous said...

Do you really think the same thing doesn't happen within the Republican party? You obviously haven't had much real life experience in politics if you think its abnormal for party leaders try to influence potential candidates.

Don't you feel a little odd comparing Democrats to Communists when in Utah the political party weilding near universal soviet style control over policy is the Republican party?

Mike Jones said...

Hey, I'm a politics expert now that I am a precinct chair. The writing in the Tribune says what it says and it does make the Democratic party sound like a BYUSA or Communist party election.

Here's a question for you Democrats: why aren't there even any Democratic candidates for county office in Utah County? Is the Democratic party just that disorganized in Utah county? Or does the state wide Democratic party just not want to waste money on a loosing effort in Utah County?

It would seem to me, and I'm no political expert as you've already pointed out, that the Democratic Party has a profound message of compassion and concern for the environment that would reverberate with a lot people in Utah County. There's quite a few right-wing extremists in Utah County but I think they are the minority. A Democratic party that sounded a chord with the right pieces of the Democratic philosophy could do a lot of good here.

I'm not the one to do that, but I'm just saying my county would be much healthier if the other party at least tried.