Closed Primary Election in Idaho?
Hey, Dave Edwards, Treasure Valley Dave here in Nampa, Idaho. And you know me, reading through the emails, I come across different stories. This is one that you need to know about. It’s about the same kind of people that screwed up California, and they’re trying to get a toehold here in Idaho. We need your help to make sure they don’t do that. So if you’ve already decided to leave California or moved to Idaho, get involved and make your voice heard. And if you haven’t gotten up here yet, get up here before those California types get up here and screw up Idaho. So what’s going on today? I read this story from the Idaho Capital Sun by George Moses: “Idaho’s closed primary election is a situation that cries out for remedy.”
What Is a Closed Primary Election?
California used to have closed primaries, which means that Republican Party or Democrat Party would have a primary election in the spring. And this is as opposed to in the fall when they have the general election.
In the closed primary election, if you’re a Democrat, you vote within your Democrat Party for different Democrats to move to the general election and compete against a Republican, a Libertarian, or whoever else is there.
During the fall, whoever the Democrats had put up in the primary and whoever the Republicans had put up in the primary went head-to-head in the general election. Then the people came out and voted for whoever they wanted.
You have to be a member of the Democrat Party to vote in the Democrat primary election in a closed primary system, and the same with the Republicans.
Are Open Primaries a Good Idea?
But California did something screwy. They said it’s an open primary. That means anybody from the Democrat Party can vote for a Republican in the primary. And they can vote for the most liberal Republican to advance to the general election, so they would have a very weak Republican going against a powerful Democrat.
Does that make a difference? Yes. Ever since California’s had its open primaries, it has been not just a Democrat-controlled state — it has become a freaking Democrat-controlled machine. And there’s no way it’s ever going to get fixed ever.
What's Happened So Far?
So what kind of shenanigans did we see here in Idaho? In Idaho, people would re-register from Democrat for the Republican closed primary to vote Republican. They would vote for the candidate meeting their political needs — meaning the weakest candidate running against their Democrat later in the general election. But we still have closed primaries here in Idaho.
Electoral Change Request in Idaho
In Idaho, the Republican Party recently voted to say that you needed to be a Republican long before the primary. And what that does is it hopefully tamps down on these shenanigans that the Democrats were doing to come and vote for Republicans or vice versa.
It didn’t happen that way, but in theory, it could. The Democrats are kind of teed off that we stopped them from pulling that shenanigan in the future. Now, they’re calling for an open primary election, meaning they can do what they were doing before, but it’d be easier on them.
Heck, we want to make life easy on the Liberals, Marxists, Democrats, or whoever wants to undermine democracy in Idaho. So let’s go through this story.
Why Do We Need to Change the Closed Primary Election?
George Moses (the author) says, “The use of a closed primary election has deprived large numbers of Idaho’s residents of full participation in our electoral process.”
Well, that’s a blatant lie. Democrats can still vote in Democrat primaries. Republicans vote in Republican primaries. No one’s deprived of anything. That’s the way the system works.
1. It Misuses the Right to Free Association
“This exclusion is based on the misapplication of the right to free association. It’s a situation that cries out for remedy.”
George is talking about the fact that the parties — Republican, Democrat, whatever — are private associations. And then it’s like, you can associate with whoever you want or create rules for your party.
2. Parties Must Protect Citizens' Rights
“When these associations enter into the public sphere and are financed with public money, they ought to be constrained to protect the rights of every citizen.”
Every citizen’s right is not hampered by whether it’s a closed primary or not because they can associate with the people they want to associate with. If they don’t want to associate with them, then that’s their free association choice. They don’t have to. But this guy says, “Boo-hoo-hoo, Democrats can’t go screw up Republican primaries.”
But he’s also talking about if it’s in the public sphere and financed with public money. Okay, let’s talk about public broadcasting. They’re in the public sphere and funded with public money. They’re left-wing and do not have the rights of every citizen in mind. They are not fair and balanced, are they?
3. Parties Can Use Assets However They Want
“Since it’s the party’s asset to bestow, it is certainly within any party’s rights to use whatever means it wishes to bestow it. Nothing in law or principle prevents that.”
That’s very true.
4. Open Primary Does Not Affect Free Association Right
“An open primary does not in any sense challenge private freedom of association.”
So George says that if we have a primary that allows Democrats to vote in the Republican primary, that doesn’t impact free association at all. Well, it does.
The Republicans bring forth particular candidates they want, and then you have Democrats interfering. That likely challenges the private freedom association.
You get such a headache when you try to understand the reasoning behind some left-wing things.
5. Parties Can Do Whatever They Want Using Their Own Money
He continues, “As the party’s desire, it can manage its nominating process at its own expense and in ways that provide that exclusivity.”
George says that parties can do whatever they want if government money is out of the parties. So he’s coming down to the rub that it’s not whether it’s right or wrong, fair or not. He’s saying it’s because you’re not using public money to make these parties. And so if anything uses public money, government money — your taxpayer money — then the lefties should have a complete say over what goes on.
6. Conflicts Occur When the State Tries to Manage Parties
“But significant conflicts with a larger public interest happen when a party calls on the state to manage a validly private business.”
Really? You know, I was a small business person in California before moving to Idaho. The state was telling me how to manage my business all the freaking time. So I had no control over it, and that’s democracy. That’s capitalism in America.
Believe me: the state is in every single thing. They can stretch the commerce clause like a rubber band to go over anything. So whether you have a private business or not, the state will be involved at some level. So to say that if the state’s involved, the state has to have control, well, I’d say, “Pound sand.”
7. There Should Be Full Citizen Participation
“The legitimacy of the elected government in a democracy rests on the bedrock of the fullest possible citizen participation.” It means that if the Democrats vote in Democrat primaries or Republicans vote in Republican primaries, everybody’s still got the fullest possible participation.
“The notion of excluding an otherwise qualified voter from an election whose purpose is to produce elected officials should horrify any advocate of democracy.”
This guy is so full of hot air. I’d hate to put a pin in him; he’d probably blow halfway across the room like a Chinese balloon. Oh my gosh.
“Excluding an otherwise qualified voter.” We’re not excluding anybody. In fact, if you went to Cub Scouts, Toastmasters, or wherever, you may vote because you want to have donuts on Thursdays.
So if I’m in the competing club down the street or a different club across the country, what does it matter? It has no impact whatsoever. It only impacts the people within that club, and that’s how it should be. Then that club puts forth their candidate to go against the candidate another club put together.
And I don’t care if it’s two or 10 or however many. Some of those European countries got oodles and oodles of different parties, and it doesn’t affect democracy, right? Because you could still vote in your party. You freely chose to go to that party.
8. Electoral Contests Must Be Open to Everyone
“Any electoral contest for public office conducted by the state with public resources must be open to all citizens.” If the government funds these races, it’s still open to all citizens. All Democrat citizens can go in the Democrat election; all Republican citizens can go in the Republican election; and so forth.
9. It Promotes Political Extremism
“In fact, they become a means of barring a significant part of the electorate from a key step in the electoral process by having closed primaries, and they encourage political extremism.” Au contraire, in California’s open primaries, democrats can have control over the Republican nominating process for the Republican candidates for the general election.
And what we’ve seen in California, Gavin Newsom, do you think there’s political extremism going on down there? And it wasn’t because of a closed primary. It just went off the rails once it went to an open primary system. So this guy’s a hundred percent backward.
10. All Registered Voters Should Be Able to Vote
“The simple principle is this. No registered voter should be excluded from voting in any public electoral contest. Any requirement is an offense against a truly democratic government.”
You know what? I bet this guy’s eyes are brown because that’s how tall they stack that stuff. And then he says, “The only feasible cure is a citizen initiative.”
Citizen Initiatives
Citizen initiatives are highly, hugely dangerous, as anybody from California knows. For one thing, the government can put out a citizen’s initiative. They can fund, market, and put together the language on the ballots to be completely misleading.
Other organizations like the Sierra Club or whatever can put together citizen initiatives and use their pool of targeted demographic. I’m saying they can have all the liberal people and exclude the conservative people so it can get on the ballot.
And here’s the thing, too. Was Prop 209 or Prop 187 hugely popular with the people in California? This was several years ago. But what they were talking about were things that would be more of a conservative nature. And as soon as they got approved by the citizen initiative, a judge stepped in and put the kibosh on it.
So the citizen initiative is great because the government can do stuff they wouldn’t otherwise get away with. But in California, they get away with whatever the heck they want.
Final Thoughts
Anyway, that’s what’s going on in Idaho. We need your help; this thing doesn’t have any legs. I’ve talked to some politically connected people up here, and they agree with me.
So if you like this video, please subscribe to the channel. I appreciate that so much. You can also visit our website to contact us for more Idaho-related resources.
As always, this is Treasure Valley Dave, and I look forward to helping you get home.
