A Case For A Closed Republican Primary – By Kelly Klaas

A political party is like a sports team and the primary election is a time when supporters of that team pick its players.  In Idaho, if you are an Independent or a Democrat or a Republican, you can help pick the players.  All you have to do is join the team.  If you don’t want to join a particular  team then you pick your own players to represent your own team.

In Idaho most people realize it’s quite difficult to be elected if you’re not part of the Republican team.  That irritates the Independents and the Democrats.  They seem to have this idea that even though they don’t want to be part of the team, they should still have the right to help decide what players are picked.  If the Independents or Democrats don’t have enough influence to pick their own winning players then they should try to do some recruiting to make their team bigger and more influential.  But they don’t want to do that.  They want to call the Republican party mean and ornery.

If you are already a member of the Republican team and don’t’ want to declare your commitment to the team by signing your name then you should  perhaps re-evaluate your team membership.  Maybe you would do better to recruit for the Independents or the Democrats so you can make one of those teams bigger and more influential so you can beat the Republicans at their own game.

The Primary election is designed to allow the different political persuasions their chance to put a player in the game.  If you are a Democrat and want to vote for a Republican in the primary then maybe you are a member of the wrong team.  The fact that the Republican team is the biggest and most influential in the state seems to mean to some that  the Republicans are supposed to be the melting pot of candidates for all political persuasions in the state.  That is not the case.

Instead of condemning the Republican Party for closing off the primary to all but declared members, the proper procedure is for the Independents and the Democrats to work to recruit more members to their teams instead of demanding that the Republicans allow them in with open arms only to vote against them in the general election.  I can guarantee you if the Democrats or Independents in this state were in the position the Republicans are in now, they too would demand their turf be protected from outsiders.