• knightly the Sneptaur
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    22 months ago

    I.e., not an election at all.

    You can stop pretending like the party’s failure to provide any choice is evidence of Democracy in action. Quite the opposite, in fact.

    • @FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What makes you think the party is responsible for providing choices?

      Consumerist thinking at its finest. But the DNC isn’t a restaurant or Costco. They don’t exist to provide choices, that’s up to volunteers. The DNC is just there to crown the winner.

      So if nobody steps up and volunteers to challenge an incumbent, then nobody will challenge the incumbent.

      • knightly the Sneptaur
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        22 months ago

        What makes you think the party is responsible for providing choices?

        That’s what parties exist for, to align political candidates that they might support each other. Going into a general election without a primary to test the candidates only ensures an untested vandidate will be on the ballot.

        Consumerist thinking at its finest. But the DNC isn’t a restaurant or Costco. They don’t exist to provide choices, that’s up to volunteers. The DNC is just there to crown the winner.

        “The DNC is just there to crown the winner.”

        You can’t be a winner if there is no contest. The coronation of “presumptive candidates” (presumed, specifically, by party leadership) is exactly what lost the election in 2016.

        So if nobody steps up and volunteers to challenge an incumbent, then nobody will challenge the incumbent.

        And thus, the party is disqualified from claiming that it is the party of democracy.

        • @FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The party exists to support their candidate in the general.

          The party doesn’t care, at all, whether the primary is competitive. In fact, until recently parties often held caucuses instead of primaries, or just selected candidates in smoke-filled rooms.

          You can’t be a winner if there is no contest

          This year there will be plenty of local candidates who will run opposed in the general election. If those races have no winners, then who will fill those offices?

            • @FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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              12 months ago

              That’s not how it works. A winner is declared no matter how many candidates.

              And your approach is unreasonable, you can’t keep repeating the election for county coroner when only one person even wants to run.

                • @FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Should school boards be elected? This year, 58% of those seats are uncontested.

                  What about local judges? This year, 84% are uncontested.

                  • knightly the Sneptaur
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                    -12 months ago

                    Yes, yes, and those are great examples of why the lack of democratic competition is an existential threat to the nation.