The political and elective system in the United States is a mixture of ignorance, stupidity, graft, money, guile, and personal attacks on opponents. We have two main parties with several small parties.
The primary is not one election for that party’s supporters to vote for but one designed to tear down opponents in that party. A few states have open primaries so a voter can pick the best person in either party. Illinois has seven people running for a chance to unseat the current Democratic Governor. One is supported by a multimillionaire who has given him tens of millions in the hopes his puppet can defeat Pritzker who he hates. Another is supported by another but less rich billionaire. Another is a millionaire himself. The rest depend on others to donate to their campaign.
All are trying to influence people to vote for them by ripping apart their opponents. Sometimes the damage is done by their own words now or from the past since social media and videos never seem to die.
If I was going to vote for one of them I would like for him to actually say how he would do what he promises. One promise is to lower my Real Estate Tax but the state gets none to give away. Since the majority of the tax goes for schools, almost all the rest pays for needed services. Most of the other promises are for things that only a dictator could do.
There’s an old adage about picking the lesser of two evils and perhaps that is how primaries have devolved. The more they beat each other up, the less chance they will have in the general election.
Commentary About the Blue Marble 