People complain about "party politics" all the time, and how the extremists on both ends of the political spectrum are ruining the process of governing the country. To look at DC, one would think that the GOP and the Democrats were 2 three-year olds fighting over a toy. George Washington decried party politics as destructive. All sorts of tinkering has been tried to "fix" the problem, and it only gets worse.

There is a strong (and deserved) urge to blame a media that fans the flames, and sometimes adds a little gasoline for fun. Media is a convenient scapegoat, but it is a scapegoat. The real cause of the problems lies in the solutions we have applied to fix the problems.

These fixes are usually created out of a need for "fairness" and the new buzzword "transparency", and all of it sprang from the ghosts of Watergate. After the 1972 Nixon landslide, lawmakers were "...shocked! I say shocked!..." at the slimy political tricks going on.

Getting elected to office has always been a slimy business. Primaries emerged as a way to address the deal-making that went on behind closed doors in smoked-filled rooms among the party elite as they chose a nominee. Even as late as 1960, primaries were not an important path to the nomination - just a gauge as to public sentiment. It might have been secretive, but seldom was a nominee settled on who was completely unsuited to lead.

Primaries and caucuses soon spread to all 50 states. It made for a lot of travel and a lot more retail politicking. Costs to campaign increased dramatically, so fundraising increased. Television became a more important medium, initially to contain costs. Buying TV time was cheaper than flying hither and yon. Then TV time became expensive as well - as did campaigning.

Slowly the primaries became the measure for who got the nomination. With TV time as the predominant way to get the message out, a certain skill level in dealing with the media was in order. As media has since expanded to a 24-7 news cycle, all of that air time needed to be full, and all of it needed to be "important". Even if it wasn't. With the addition of the internet, YouTube and Facebook, media skill and sadly, looks became even more important.

Primaries have degraded into "American Idol - Politics." It's a popularity contest, not a serious consideration of who will lead the country. Stinging quips and soundbite answers have replaced serious debate on serious issues.

Somewhere down the line, as the campaigning became harsher, and the governing became impossible, the powers-that-be decided that neutering the parties would be a good idea. In one of the worst ideas ever, primaries became open. You did not have to be a Republican to vote Republican, or a Democrat to vote Democrat. It was supposed to move the debate to the center, but it has just made what candidates say vaguer.

This leads to a variety of mischief on so many levels. Since Super Bowl is this weekend, lets go with a football illustration. As the Giants and Patriots meet, we are going to say that the fans are allowed to select the lineup. Giant fans will choose the best Giant players, and Patriot fans will choose the best Patriot players. Just to keep things from getting too partisan, you are given the option to select players for the opposing team. We go from getting the best players to the most mediocre, as we still favor our own side.

That's where we stand with the GOP primaries. Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina were all open primaries. Florida was the first closed primary - You had to be a registered Republican to vote. It may well reflect the nation, but in another interesting twist there were nearly 600,000 early voters, some of whom voted before the Newt surge in SC.

Rush Limbaugh saw this flaw in 2008 with his "Operation Chaos" to keep Hillary's campaign alive. Since then even more states have become open including California, which, as always, has gone a step further. They have adopted an open ballot which does not indicate a party affiliation, and the top two vote getters are listed in the general election, regardless of party affiliation. If you're not paying close attention, you will not vote intelligently. Sadly most people don't pay attention.

It's how we wound up with Barack Obama, rather than Hillary or John McCain. Smooth, sharp dressed, cool as a cucumber, with soaring rhetoric about vague but inspirational concepts vs. a shrieking harpy or a crazy old man in a panic about the economic crash. That's what it was to most people saw. Most people are not you. Most people believe the TV ads and votes for the guy they'd want to have a beer with.

It translates to the primaries as well. Newt is entertaining, Mitt is a Ken Doll, Rick is finally figuring it out, and Ron is Ron. My guess is that if Newt was on his game in Florida, the results might have been if not different, it would have been a whole lot closer.

Common Sense Dictates

Neutering the parties has had these destructive effects. The cure may well be restoring the parties. Two clear platforms that illustrate the core principles of each party. During the primaries, we chooses candidates whose policy positions we feel will best serve the core principles of the party. We fold those policies into the final platform for the general election. That's how its supposed to work. If you do not accept these core principles, you are not entitled to run in a primary. That would have eliminated two or three of the initial candidates.

No open primaries. To vote in a GOP primary you must be a registered Republican for the previous year's election. Ditto for the Democrats. If you're not a member of the party, you have no business selecting the leadership of the party. Independents, sorry, you have no business selecting the leadership of either party, since you won't join either. You get to vote in the general election, after the parties have done their work.

Debates - Primary debates need to be debates, not soundbites. We made our suggestions in Debating Debates . The General election debates must move away from the media clowns, and back to being sponsored by a neutral party, or a coalition of neutral parties, if any exist anymore.

And finally, to send this further down the food chain, term limits on all federal elected offices. We covered that in Grumpy Old Men. They were a part of the Articles of Confederation, but were dropped in the Constitution as the idea of a career politician crawled out of the primordial ooze of DC. It's an idea whose time has come back, as well as trying for a repeal of the 17th Amendment.

So says Common Sense.

RLB