The problem with American democracy is that it has devolved into two political parties, each of which handpicks its candidates through primary elections. Then each chosen party candidate goes on to face the other party’s primary election winner in a general election.
That seems to be OK on the surface, but in reality, it is the reason for the discord throughout our government. It is also the process that yields ultra-right and ultra left candidates who are inflexible and unwilling to work with one another.
The truth is that primary elections attract only a smattering of voters and, on the most part, those who do vote are the party faithful. In recent years, many are on the far ends of the political spectrum. Often good candidates who could represent the majority of us in the middle cannot make it through the primary, because moderate voters do not turn out in sufficient numbers to be decisive in primary elections. Thus, we can end up with candidates on the far right or far left.
It turns out that unless candidates toe the line, they can lose the primary. That is the reason that Trump has been able to get away with his alleged shenanigans. The slim minority of people who support him are primary-voting Republicans.
The Make America Great Again movement only lives among these diehard Republican primary voters, a number of which are so blinded by this billionaire’s persona that they send him their hard-earned money. They are anything but a majority as was clearly demonstrated in the last general election. Although Trump lost in the general election by a landslide, even today he is still leading among diehard Republicans who are primary voters.
In fact in recent polls, Republicans, who believe America’s best days are tied to Trump’s reelection, are about the same number of Republican primary voters who supported Trump in 2016 and again in 2020, prior to Trump’s failed reelection.
These are the Republican primary voters who still do not accept that Joe Biden legitimately won enough votes to win the presidency. Many are white Republicans generally without a college degree who form Trump’s political base. They vote in primaries and select those who run in general elections representing the Republican party.
To prove the point, even with Trump facing felony charges, and likely an even greater tangle of legal problems forthcoming, he has officially launched his campaign and has strong support among Republican primary voters. It is clear from polling numbers that Trump could well win the Republican primary. Yet, he has less than 40% of the support of projected general election voters.
This discrepancy between primary and general election voters has been weaponized to mislead Trump’s base into believing that when Trump wins the primary, he should then automatically win the general election. Otherwise, something is crooked.
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Further, a number of Republican primary voters seem to believe that the country is increasingly racial and see ethnic and national diversity in American culture as a bad thing and a threat. They see American society’s values on sexual orientation and gender identity as changing for the worse.
These primary voters only account for about a third of Republicans and a much smaller portion of all general election voters.
White non-urban Republican primary voters are looking to seize power and remove from office Black and Hispanic officials who had been elected by largely non-white urban and suburban voters. You don’t need a majority of voters to be the GOP nominee. You only have to win the primary election to appear on the general election ballot.
With primaries facilitating the selection of hardcore candidates, the Republican party has moved inch by inch toward becoming authoritarian. That is a belief that issues no longer require discussion, and those with a different point of view are deserving of name-calling and reputation-soiling.
Republican primary voters have come to demand their candidates take hardline positions where government, not freedom of choice, sets the rules for social and educational prerogatives. This is the opposite of the Republican party’s long-time stance for smaller government and freedom of choice. In other words, there is now support for a government that dictates laws covering social issues, education, reduction in access to medical assistance and how we see one another.
None of this is to say that Republicans are bad. They are not. And I remain a Republican. What it is to say is that Republicans need to re-establish their roots, become wider engaged in primary elections, temper support for fringe candidates, work out solutions to social issues with a mind to all of our citizens, stop throwing stones and become more caring, inclusive and empathetic.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. The firm provides enterprise-level cloud-software for communicating, specifying, approving, procuring, producing, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, packaging, promo, marketing and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at [email protected].
