Professional Politicians Dread Them But Primaries Are An Essential Component Of Our Electoral System

Hillary sees the billionaire class as her benefactors and partners; Bernie has a different perspective

One of the problems with the professional political parties based inside the Beltway is that they instinctively discourage primaries. Party bosses hate them because they cost money and tend to cater to the base, making it more difficult to get muddled careerist hacks without vision into office. And if the party elites are about anything, it's getting muddled careerist hacks without vision into office. This past cycle we talked a lot about how Harry Reid, Michael Bennet and Guy Cecil were so angry that a populist challenger in South Dakota, Rick Weiland, decided to challenge their recruit, Blue Dog careerrist Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, that she bowed out and they decided to let the Republicans win the state. That's pretty extreme.

Bordering on the southeast corner of South Dakota, we find Iowa, which holds a very special spot in electoral politics. Progressive radio talk show host, Ed Fallon, points out that the same antipathy DC Democrats feel towards primaries, imvues the state party careerists as well. "An elite Establishment controls the Iowa Democratic Party, and they simply don't like primaries," he wrote over the weekend. "Nominating candidates is so old school. The Establishment prefers coronations. It's less messy. And it's less expensive, saving limited Establishment dollars for essentials like yachts, trips to the Caribbean and that new Lexus your trust-fund kid so desperately needs.

Coronations happen in two ways:

One. Establishment Democrats wait until a day or two before the filing deadline to announce that an elected official is retiring, so potential challengers unacceptable to the Establishment have no time to collect the signatures needed to qualify. This happens more often than you think. (Two cases from a few years back that come to mind are the retirements of State Representatives Wayne Ford and Elesha Gayman.)

Two. The Establishment picks a "safe" candidate, one who won't rock the boat if elected, one who may pay lip service to challenging the Corporate Elite, but won't push for systemic reform. The Establishment gets the corporate-owned media to tout the candidate as the inevitable nominee, and hammer away at the "fact" that this candidate is so strong, so likely to win in November that no sensible Democrat would challenge them. Meanwhile, they pump loads of money and hype into the "race." If any upstart Democrats threaten to jump in, they discourage them with every means available, including threats and even bribes. When the chosen candidates get their clock cleaned in November, the Establishment just says, "Well, it was a Republican year."

Two of the most important races in Iowa this year involved coronations: Bruce Braley and Staci Appel. If Braley and Appel had been tested in a primary, perhaps they would have been prepared to fend off the attacks of the virtually unknown Republicans who beat them, who are now on their way to Washington, DC. (And in case you think the coronation problem is strictly a Democratic malaise, how many of you remember the perceived inevitably of Jim Ross Lightfoot in 1998 and Jim Nussle in 2006? Former Governors Vilsack and Culver remember-- and they both had primaries.)

Of course, the coronation thing is not just a state problem. It's a national one. Right now, both the Iowa and national Establishment Democrats are beating the drums for the coronation of Hillary Clinton as the inevitable Democratic nominee for President. Don't let them do it! Regardless of how you feel about Clinton, insist on a good, hearty multiple-candidate nominating process. That's one thing the Republicans got right in 2012, although most of their candidates were . . . how do I say it politely . . . extremists? As 2016 approaches, a slew of Republican presidential wannabes are already making their intentions known. Democratic contenders better do the same, and they better start soon.

And centrist sparring partners for Hillary-- like Martin O'Malley and James Webb-- are not the makings of a meaningful primary. Webb wants to run as a progressive despite a reactionary voting record in the Senate and O'Malley wants to prove he could be a good vice president for Hillary. That's not what Fallon was talking about when he was asking for a consequential, ideas-oriented debate. And that's why we're staking so much here at Blue America on Bernie Sanders' likely run. You can encourage him here.