In Iran you can vote for anyone for President so long as that person has been approved by the Ayatollah Khameini. We Americans call that system a dictatorship.
Voters in America recently discovered that they live under an Iranian type of system and didn’t know it. In the primaries, voters participate in some sort of ritualistic placebo voting while party leaders select the candidates. . . .
Thanks to social media, and Trump, America will get its first taste of real democracy. If it doesn’t work out, we can always go back to the Iranian model and hope for our self-awareness to diminish over time.
Not so.
Prior to Jimmy Carter, political party leadership selected candidates. Carter changed that by becoming the first candidate to reach the Oval Office by winning primaries rather than being initially chosen by party leadership.
After Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan,however, Democrats created superdelegates in a effort to curb primary voter influence. Republicans typically follow a similar pattern.
The popularity of alternative candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump is evidence of deep seated voter disenchantment with politics as usual. Regardless of who wins in November, both political parties are going to have to rethink their selection process if they are to survive.