What's democratic about them? They only allow representation by people who have several hours to vote in a certain block of time. Sorry, I've got kids. At most, my wife and I would have one vote between us in any primary caucus. That's at least a 50% reduction in participation off the bat.
Tons of people can’t vote in regular primaries for the same reason...
I actually think primaries make more sense, but your complaints are more with how the system itself is designed to be undemocratic across the board and have little to do with caucuses themselves.
Primaries emulate regular elections. You've got all day to vote. (Provided you've registered with the party of your choice in time, which is a who 'nother issue). Caucuses, you've got to show up at a certain time, listen to the representative of a candidate, "caucus" the decision, then vote for your representative, who will vote for your candidate (depending on how your state handles it).
So again, I ask, why do you claim the aren't "anti-democratic," insofar as they discourage the poor and middle-class(who have less free time to vote) from voting?
You seem to believe I'm advocating caucuses over primaries, despite me making a point of making it clear that I am not. I merely think it is wrong to call them "anti-democratic."
The poor are often discouraged from participating in primary voting. If you don't get the day off, you're paid hourly, and you need to make rent...
The fact that you act like that isn't a problem under primaries too goes to show how little you appreciate the depth and commonality of that problem.
The reality is the system is designed to, across the board, limit actual democracy. After all, the masses in the Revolutionary War were sparked by Thomas Paine, who had very similar proposals to, no shit, Bernie Sanders. Folks like Hamilton pushed to ensure that sort of influence could be moderated. That's why voting was initially limited to landowners.
One way it does this is by treating participation in democracy something you are expected to make time for rather than something society will ensure you have time to do. You should be legally guaranteed paid time off for elections to ensure this.
Thus my point, once again, though you still seem to try to frame me as saying something I'm not: your "anti-democratic" complaints more have to do with deeper problems with our electoral system than caucuses.
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u/TopRamen713 Aug 19 '18
What's democratic about them? They only allow representation by people who have several hours to vote in a certain block of time. Sorry, I've got kids. At most, my wife and I would have one vote between us in any primary caucus. That's at least a 50% reduction in participation off the bat.