[EM] language/framing quibble

[Dave Ketchum]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:34:01 -0500 Fred Gohlke wrote:
> COMMENTS ON AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES
> 
...
> 
> OLIGARCHIC PARTY STRUCTURE
> The political parties that control all political activity in the United 
> States are in no sense democratic.  The American people do not elect 
> those who control the parties.  In fact, most Americans don't even know 
> who they are.  They are appointed by their party and serve at the 
> party's pleasure.  We, the people the parties are supposed to represent, 
> have no control over who these people are, how long they serve, or the 
> deals they make to raise the immense amounts of money they use to keep 
> their party in power.  They constitute a ruling elite above and beyond 
> the reach of the American people.

This may be true in some states.  New York has laws governing parties with 
ballot status (the state conducts primary elections for each such party). 
Their state and county committees do have some power, and members of such 
are elected for two-year terms at those primary elections.

The committees can designate candidates for the primaries, which often gets 
such candidates nominated as the party candidate for the general election 
via winning the primary.

Party members can also designate candidates for the primary election.

And, voters can nominate candidates for the general election via petition.

Not perfect.  In Tioga County, where I live, a county chair got dictatorial 
powers via enough proxies to be able to hold meetings in a telephone booth. 
  When that annoyed enough members, new people got elected to the committee 
and the now ex-chair left.
> 
> When we allow those who control our political parties to usurp the power 
> of governing our nation, it is foolish to imagine that we retain the 
> power bestowed on us by our Constitution.  It is a tragedy that so few 
> of us recognize (or are willing to acknowledge) that we have 
> relinquished our right to govern ourselves to unknown people who 
> proclaim themselves our agents.
...
> 
> Fred
-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
            Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
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