Reply #51: I'm one guy with an opinion about the point of voting in a primary as a party [View All]

[CreekDog]

If every Democrat pledged to both vote in the primary and accept the winner (not pout and stay home on general election day), then we would all be free to vote our consciences in the primary though keeping in mind who would likely win the general election.

In doing so, we are acting in two ways:

1) acting as a coalition of liberal or liberal leaning voters (aka Democrats) pledging to support whomever can get a plurality of our votes alone
2) strengthening the vote of liberals and liberal leaners in the general election by committing to a nominee in advance so that our party can work on centrists who may or may not be affiliated with the Republican Party.

And being a highly ideological voter who supports winning candidates means being disappointed but not devastated. For instance, Gore would have been centrist in many ways (disappointing), however, we got Bush because enough liberals voted for Nader and suffice to say with Bush we are DEVASTATED.

This is the point of having a party, having a primary, supporting the winner and thus letting the winner do what they need to do to wrap up the general election.

In the general election, generally the candidate that needs to cater to his left and right loses. The candidate that is free to cater in just one direction is MUCH BETTER OFF and MUCH MORE LIKELY TO WIN.