We need a national primary and high-tech campaigning that's better for candidates and voters.

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Tue Feb 4, 2020, 12:01 PM - Edit history (1)

The amount of time and money spent on Iowa and the other early states looked crazy even before last night's fiasco.

There's no reason, with today's technology, that candidates couldn't do online town halls every day from home, without the strain and expense of travel.

There's no reason those couldn't be set up to include small audiences in many locales as well as people logging in individually from their own homes.

There could always be SOME campaign appearances across the country, from large rallies to smaller events allowing more interaction.

But we need to get away from focusing on just a few states.

And honestly, I think it would help all our candidates if they did frequent online town halls in different locations, involving some local and state issues.

The candidates would learn more about what's going on across the country.

And the voters would get a better sense of how concerned the candidate is and how she or he might be able to help.


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Editing to add that we also need shorter primaries, as octoberlib reminded me in another thread:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287473006#post7

[highplainsdem]

1. kicking after editing the OP

[HerbChestnut]

2. Disagree.

A national primary would make it so candidates with less name recognition and money early in the race would not be able to compete. Take Pete or Yang, for example. Neither of those guys would have a shot in a national primary. It would also make it easier for people like Bloomberg, with limitless sums of money, to swoop in and buy the election.

EDIT: Should also add that Obama would not have won a national primary.

[highplainsdem]

3. Did you notice what I said about online town halls? Those wouldn't cost a lot to do.

YouTube has been a great leveler, helping artists break through.

It can do the same thing for politicians.

[brooklynite]

4. I'm delighted to know you like watching candidates on TV...I want to see them in person

I want to see them engage face to face with a heckler; I want to see how they empathize with someone in front of them; I want to see how well organized their ground team is.

[highplainsdem]

5. I said they could always do some in-person campaigning. But they can interact with voters in a lot

more locations via online town halls, without having to spend so much time and money traveling.

I want to see how they relate to people across the country.

I want to see that that they're aware of the problems in those areas.

I don't want to hear about multiple visits to the same places in the same states, month after month, with most of the country ignored.

We're not voting for president of the Iowa State Fair.

[brooklynite]

7. The fact that nobody does video town halls (except in a crisis situation) says a lot.

[squirecam]

6. No to a national primary

But Iowa should lose its slot. Not only is a caucus not democratic, and not only was there issues with reporting, but the electorate didn’t bother to show up.

States that have 8% of the electorate show up shouldn’t get to go first.