pandemic primaries!

[bryantm3]

so, what's y'all's call on the recent primaries? with arlen specter losing to a left-wing democrat and a tea party member winning the republican primary, it seems like we have an 'anti-middle' movement going on, but of course FN is spinning it like the whole thing is a massive failure for obama, seeing as he backed specter.

wasn't there another d-primary going on for john murtha's seat? whatever happened to that? i've been getting a lot of information but not much clear info. mostly loudmouth opinions rather than hard facts, which is unfortunately the norm today on cable news.

what i see arlen specter doing is pulling a joe lieberman and running as an independent. i think he very well may be able to pull that off. what's y'all's take (and some more facts please)?

[cacophony]

i personally don't think it's an anti-middle thing. i think the polarized ends of the spectrum are more motivated and turning out in greater numbers. polling shows the general public feels pretty okay with the way things are going, and satisfied voters are less likely to be active voters.

this is how we turn ourselves over to the extremists. we stay home.

[Sean]

Unfortunately, the system is also designed to favor extremists in key ways. Specifically, the fact that primaries are generally party-centric (ie only registered Republicans being allowed to vote for the Republican primary candidates, and Democrats for Democratic candidates) means that a Republican candidate must play to the "Republican base", just as Democrats must play to the "Democratic base". The "base" groups tend to be more ideologically rigid, so the more ideologically rigid candidate tends to have more success. And of course, those are then the candidates that us moderates get stuck choosing from in general elections. I personally prefer the idea of open primaries, so anyone can vote for the primary candidates they like from any party. Of course that would also open us up to people registering sabotage votes - like if Democrats overwhelmingly voted for the least viable Republican primary candidate in hopes of upping the chances of an ultimate Democratic win in the general election.

Anyway, that party-centric problem coupled with the more extreme ideological gap we've seen in the country lately is why I think we saw the results we did. Plus what Cacophony said.

As for the Murtha special election in Pennsylvania, it was won by the Democratic candidate, Mark Critz, with 53% of the vote compared to Republican Tim Burns' 45%. Given that it took place in a conservative district that Obama actually lost back in 2008, I'd say it looks like more of a net failure for Republicans than anyone else.