The Chris Moeller Archives

Equal representation

The Senate Rules Committee spent the day debating whether or not Congress should step in and wrestle control away from the states in determining the presidential primary and caucus schedule. Things are getting too far out of control for the tastes of Beltway power brokers. Activists in states like Florida and Nevada and California and Michigan are fed up with playing second banana to the kingmakers of Iowa and New Hampshire, and representative democracy threatens to break out across the land if nothing is done.

The Democratic and Republican party bosses and their henchmen in Congress want to keep the nominating power nestled securely with a small group of well-heeled and well-trained activists and organizers in the two traditional lead-off voting states. It's much easier to control the electoral decisions of several hundred activists in a pair of small states than it is several million citizens stretching from coast to coast. Limit the debate. Extinguish any potential conflict. Don't leave room for any surprises. That's part of any corporate power structure.

And there goes Congress again, concerning itself with the actions of our two dominant and very dysfunctional parties. Somewhere in our Constitution you would think it was written that the United States is mandated a two-party political system, and that Congress is required to keep watch on the viability of both.

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If only residents of Washington D.C. had the same voting rights as Iraqis.

posted by CM @ 8:49 PM