When was the last time that the Texas primary mattered in either party's choice of a presidential candidate? To be honest, I really don't remember it ever having much influence. That is because the race is pretty much over by the time Texans vote.
I remember in 2004 I was excited about a Democratic candidate for the first time in many years, and I was looking forward to supporting that candidate in the Texas Democratic primary. That candidate was Howard Dean. The only problem was that by the time Texas had its primary, Dean had dropped out of the race and Kerry was pretty much assured of the nomination.
I wound up not voting in that primary so I could sign the petition of Ralph Nader. At least he was a candidate I could respect. While I have never voted for a Republican, and probably never will, I cannot bring myself to vote for a candidate just because they're running as a Democrat. There are people running with the Democratic label who simply don't deserve support from true leftists (Joe Lieberman is a prime example).
To me, Kerry was one of these. During that election he seemed to be ashamed of his liberal roots, and if he was ashamed of me, why should I support him? And don't give me that "better of two evils" argument. A bad choice is still a bad choice, even when running against another bad choice.
Moving Texas' primary up to a date where the decision has not yet been made would give Texas voters a real voice in who the party's candidate will be. This could bring many voters back into the primary process by giving them the vote when more than one or two candidates are still in the race.
I don't want to choose between candidates approved by other states. I want to make my choice from among all the candidates, whether anyone thinks my choice has a chance or not. Now that California has moved its primary up to February 5th, the stakes are even higher.
If Texas does not move its primary date up, the race will be over before it gets to Texas. Once again Texans will not get a voice in who the candidate will be. Now that California, with its huge number of delegates up for grabs, has joined the February 5th crowd, it is imperative that Texas also move to an earlier primary.
We must move our primary up to February 5th, or again be left out of the process.
How can you beat up on Kerry and Lieberman as not liberal enough and yet support Richardson, who is far to the right of Kerry and slightly to the right of Lieberman?
ReplyDelete1. Richardson is pro-NAFTA, pro-CAFTA, and anti-Fair Trade;
2. Richardson shut down presidential recount in New Mexico and wiped the electronic voting records clean despite the on-going challenge to the suspicious results (New Mexico had the highest undervote for president in the whole nation);
3. Richardson has much praise for Bush's immigration plans;
4. Richardson is a favorite of the DLC;
5. Richardson supports the death penalty and even supports increasing the number of federal crimes punishable by death;
6. Richardson voted to abolish habeas corpus in death penalty appeals;
7. Richardson supports prosecuting minors as adults;
8. Richardson supported eliminating automatic citizenship for all children born in the USA;
9. Richardson supports limiting access to our court system for people hurt by negligent HMOs, hospital corporations, and nursing homes; and
10. Richardson voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act against gay marriage.
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