Replies to post #211 on TOWN MEETING (Selecting Our Leaders) (TOWNM)

[Lownumba]

Political parties are the sine qua nons of representative democracies. They are simply not going away.

That said:

Yes, anyone can withdraw his support from any candidate or official for any reason at any time. Why would I continue to support someone with whom I no longer agree on policy? I am the public, Fred. I'm not Boss Tweed.

The idea that advancing/supporting the candidacy of a person with similar political, economic and/or social values constitutes "load(ing) the electoral process" is one with which I fundamentally disagree. It is no more than taking an active part in the democratic process.

And yes, there is a possibility that our proposal will be rejected. That's the way the cookie crumbles. I don't have a problem with that.

[BullNBear52]

However, you and I and Occams Razor have never been elected to anything and here we are deciding our party's policies and what candidate we'll put forth. The public has had no part in these deliberations or decisions, but they are only able to vote for the candidates we (and our opponent parties) put forth.

That is not how representative democracies work. Take Massachusetts for instance. Every town has a caucus where each party "elects" a representative to send to the state convention. That representative then votes the will of the people back in his town.

Here in NC it's done in much the same fashion. We start at the local level by precinct and county choosing people to send to the state convention.

Iowa is probably the purest form of how this works...

http://www.iowacaucus.org/faqs.html