10/07/2026
The Democrats have decided to move the New Mexico presidential primary earlier, to February, so we can have more “say” and “impact” on the candidates. This reminds us of moving a wrecked car down the block and polishing it to make it more acceptable to buyers.
Our presidential selection process is deeply broken, and our leaders are not working to fix it. Look at the output of the two major parties in the last election cycle: we elected one of the least qualified Presidential candidates not once, but twice, thanks to the Democrats. Could it be that the system is inherently dysfunctional? And that to get to a better, more qualified President the whole system needs reform? I think so, and so do most Americans.
Traditionally, fewer than one percent of the population in Iowa and New Hampshire decide which primary candidate gets to move on to another set of states -- and now New Mexico is in the mix. The parties decide which candidates qualify for the national debates, so that 1 percent can figure out who to vote for. Each state has a different system. Some allow independents to vote in party primaries, some have no primaries at all (only conventions or caucuses) all have party members or voters voting for a slate of delegates they have never met, instead of voting for an actual candidate.
Because of the hundreds of millions of dollars it costs to run a presidential campaign, the first few state primaries determine the outcome of the whole election. Voters in later states have much less power than those in earlier states--which would seem to violate several constitutional amendments simultaneously.
Then delegates who were elected through 50 different systems go to a convention with rules crafted by party insiders, opening up the possibility that the will of the people will be completely ignored. Not that anyone could divine what the will of the people might be, because there is no national primary election of any kind.
The only real solution comes from outside the two-party system: remove primaries from the major parties once and for all. These are public elections, paid for by your tax dollars. We should select our candidates directly, through an open primary for all 50 states, on a single day. All candidates should compete together with the top five advancing to the general, regardless of their party, or lack of party.
Since over 45% of the population identify as independent, an independent or minor party candidate should have a real chance to run in the general election along with the two major parties.
If the parties want their own primaries, they should have to pay for them. Otherwise, primaries should be open it to all voters, in all states, all the time.
There is no way a new democracy anywhere in the world would adopt the unfair system that we have today, where party insiders pick partisan candidates elected by insider delegates at a party convention that isn’t bound by election results. It’s the definition of a smoke-filled room.
The leaders that emerge from this broken system are far from the best and the brightest. They're the ones most adept at the insider game of American politics.
We need a new car, not a bit of polish.
