WaPo: 'Give the Elites a Bigger Say in Choosing the President'

Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
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'Give the Elites a Bigger Say in Choosing the President'
Joel B. Pollak
The Washington Post is taking criticism for an op-ed published Tuesday by Marquette University political science professor Julia Azari, titled: “It’s time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president.”
Citing the “rocky start” to the Democratic Party’s presidential primary, Azari suggests that the process of choosing the nominee be taken from the people and returned to the politicians:
The current process is clearly flawed, but what would be better? … A better primary system would empower elites to bargain and make decisions, instructed by voters.
One lesson from the 2020 and 2016 election cycles is that a lot of candidates, many of whom are highly qualified and attract substantial followings, will inevitably enter the race. The system as it works now — with a long informal primary, lots of attention to early contests and sequential primary season that unfolds over several months — is great at testing candidates to see whether they have the skills to run for president. What it’s not great at is choosing among the many candidates who clear that bar, or bringing their different ideological factions together, or reconciling competing priorities. A process in which intermediate representatives — elected delegates who understand the priorities of their constituents — can bargain without being bound to specific candidates might actually produce nominees that better reflect what voters want.
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Azari suggests that the parties should use what she calls “preference primaries,” which would “allow voters to rank their choices among candidates, as well as to register opinions about their issue priorities.”
After a perfunctory voting process, wlites would be able to choose a nominee based on information about what the voters want.
She acknowledges that the idea is “labor-intensive and a little risky.”
The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who is the world’s richest man. The paper’s slogan, adopted as an intended rebuke to President Donald Trump, is “Democracy dies in darkness.”
That phrase was trending on Twitter on Wednesday morning as readers reacted ironically to the op-ed.
The headline right below “democracy dies in darkness” is some A+ work
— Greg (@gwiss) February 19, 2020
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>"Democracy dies in darkness"
>"Do people actually want more Democracy in their lives" pic.twitter.com/p7fPf5dFVX
— ｓａｌ‍☠️ (@ProjektVayo) February 19, 2020
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File this under: “Democracy dies in Darkness” https://t.co/VbD9kvJgWl
— Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben (@OliverHidWoh) February 19, 2020
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Azari’s article appears to anticipate the possibility of a “brokered convention” among Democrats this summer. Currently, no candidate is projected to win a majority of delegates before they gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — near Professor Azari’s university — at the Democratic National Convention.
Average projected delegates through Super Tuesday:
Sanders 608 (41% of delegates thru March 3)
Bloomberg 273 (18%)
Biden 270 (18%)
Buttigieg 157 (10%)
Warren 127 (8%)
Klobuchar 55 (4%)Who Will Win The 2020 Democratic Primary?
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 18, 2020
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If no candidate wins on the first ballot, there will be a second — at which point committed delegates will be free to choose other candidates, and the party elites, known as “superdelegates,” will be able to vote.
Also on Tuesday, billionaire oligarch Mike Bloomberg, who once changed the rules to run for a third term as mayor of New York City, qualified for the Democrat debate in Nevada on Wednesday evening.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

www.breitbart.com

Washington Post Op-ed: 'Give the Elites a Bigger Say in Choosing the President'

The Washington Post is taking criticism for an op-ed titled: "It’s time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president."
www.breitbart.com
 
Dobbin

Dobbin

Faithful Steed
So much for widening the voter franchise.

I could go for this. It all depends on who you term "elite."

Property-owning, taxpaying, male above 21 would be a good place to start.

It worked for the Founders. B. Franklin himself acknowledged it was necessary given the mindset of the period to get the Constitution passed. (Meanwhile he supported eliminating the property requirement if all the other criteria were met.) Fight For Voting Rights Started With Founding Of U.S., Says Author

Somehow I don't think this is exactly what WaPo had in mind.

Dobbin
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
One actual problem is that as far as I know - Political parties in the US are actually free to choose a candidate any way they wish to do so, and a number of smaller parties do just that.

The membership may vote or they may be appointed, and in the "old days" there were lots of "brokered" conventions some Republican and some Democrat.

The Primaries for Democrats and Republicans got pretty socked in there and most States have them and facilitate them, but I'm pretty sure that constitutionally as long as the candidates are qualified, either party could pick a candidate using a game of checkers or a dice roll if they wanted to.

Now I may be wrong on this, it has been some time since I looked into the specifics, but I think this is one reason Democrats have "super delegates" and I don't think Republicans do (at least not official) because of their party/their system.

In the "old" days, most candidates were chosen late at night in "smoke-filled rooms," the public got to choose between Tweddle De and Tweddle Dum but I don't they started choosing the nominees until the 20th century (or at least not in an official way with primaries etc).
 
Bps1691

Bps1691

Veteran Member
julia-azari.png

Director of Graduate Studies for the Political Science and International Affairs M.A. Programs
Associate Professor and Assistant Chair
Prof. Julia Azari is Associate Professor and Assistant Chair in the Department of Political Science at Marquette University. She holds Ph.D., M.A. and M.Phil. degrees in political science from Yale University, and a B.A. in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research and teaching interests include the American presidency, American political parties, the politics of the American state, and qualitative research methods. Her research has been supported by the Marquette University Regular Research Grant, the Harry Middleton Fellowship in Presidential Studies, the Gerald Ford Presidential Library Foundation Travel Grant, and the Harry Truman Library Institute Scholars Award.


Prof. Azari is a regular contributor at the political science blog The Mischiefs of Faction. Her work has also appeared in the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog and in Politico.
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Milkweed Host

Milkweed Host

Veteran Member
20Gauge said:
That wouldn't be such a bad idea.....

Run for office you can not have had children and you need to be sterile....
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Yes, the problem would self-correct. It's along the lines of whenever they enact
a new law, two old laws have to be taken off the books.
 
Ractivist

Ractivist

Pride comes before the fall.....Pride month ended.
It's quite interesting that such things were never said about the ultimate in Manchurian candidates that had zero experience that would pertain to making a country run to it's maximum......the mesiah was the least qualified candidate in all of time. Clinton one of the most corrupt, and Bush, a tool for the new world order. With Trump we think we have an honest man in the White House.......pray we do. Time will tell. I'd take an honest man with a modicum of intelligence over a bought and paid for corrupt brilliant politician any day of the year...... Trump most definetly has a fair share of functioning grey matter.

Fact is, it's all part of the move to brainwash the masses in the unending diatribe of orange man bad. The talk shows at night are so blatantly one sided that a complete idiot is the only one who would believe their narratives....useful idiots.
 
MinnesotaSmith

MinnesotaSmith

Membership Revoked
Dobbin said:
So much for widening the voter franchise.

I could go for this. It all depends on who you term "elite."

Property-owning, taxpaying, male above 21 would be a good place to start.

It worked for the Founders. B. Franklin himself acknowledged it was necessary given the mindset of the period to get the Constitution passed. (Meanwhile he supported eliminating the property requirement if all the other criteria were met.) Fight For Voting Rights Started With Founding Of U.S., Says Author

Somehow I don't think this is exactly what WaPo had in mind.

Dobbin
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And, don't let anyone who works for dead tree media, television, a pro-socialist political party, a Muslim or homo, or is anything at a university other than a STEM teacher or in ROTC, be considered "elite".
 
Shadow

Shadow

Swift, Silent,...Sleepy
Register the elite, just to be sure there are no imposters.:) Then round them up.

Shadow
 
mistaken1

mistaken1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Azari suggests that the process of choosing the nominee be taken from the people and returned to the politicians:
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What does this genius mean by returned to the politicians?

Is she referring to their self-proclaimed divine right to rule?

Sadly many so-called elites today are nothing more than over educated idiots whose only claim to fame is running a successful con game bilking students out of borrowed money as their marks lap up the verbal diarrhea that issues from their mouths.
 
TammyinWI

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
From the OP: "The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who is the world’s richest man..."

The elite are really enjoying messing with peoples' heads, and the "professor" that wrote this is one of their puppets.
 
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