Sunday, March 02, 2008
Messing with Texas
I know that there has been a lot of ink about how confusing Texas's Texas Two-Step Primary and Caucus system is -- but I've got to admit I like it.
I agonized a little about my problems with Minnesota's caucus system -- but I also recognize that there are some virtues to the caucus system, and I'd hate to have a rush to eliminate the good part of it.
One of the challenges we have is that we don't ever really have a system where one person equals one vote -- a person in a larger state, after all, will have less impact in the senate. Congressional districts don't all have the same amount of voting participation, even if they're about the same size in population.
It may be a bit nerve wracking to have something as close as this presidential nominating process be impacted by the rules in a state like this -- but one of the things that is often true, especially when you have a very large voting population -- is that the rules tend to dictate the winner just because you're always going to have some error in the election result.
So sometimes, when it is close enough that a coin flip might as well decide it -- it's going to be the team that has the rules that will decide it. Sometimes, that'll be frustrating (like it was in 2000) -- but that's really almost inevitable at times.
I agonized a little about my problems with Minnesota's caucus system -- but I also recognize that there are some virtues to the caucus system, and I'd hate to have a rush to eliminate the good part of it.
One of the challenges we have is that we don't ever really have a system where one person equals one vote -- a person in a larger state, after all, will have less impact in the senate. Congressional districts don't all have the same amount of voting participation, even if they're about the same size in population.
It may be a bit nerve wracking to have something as close as this presidential nominating process be impacted by the rules in a state like this -- but one of the things that is often true, especially when you have a very large voting population -- is that the rules tend to dictate the winner just because you're always going to have some error in the election result.
So sometimes, when it is close enough that a coin flip might as well decide it -- it's going to be the team that has the rules that will decide it. Sometimes, that'll be frustrating (like it was in 2000) -- but that's really almost inevitable at times.
Labels: politics
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