Extremism?

A lot of people are now talking about how the two parties have drifted further and further apart.  This is primarily the result of the way we select candidates via primaries.

Primaries attract a small percentage of voters and the ones who show up are often voters with an agenda.  So more progressive leaning people vote in Democratic primaries and more reactionary people vote in Republican primaries.  Once selected as the party nominee they get the votes of the more moderate members who would never have picked that candidate to be the nominee.

Take one of the more talked about Progressives elected to this congress, Alexandria Octavio-Cortez won beat the incumbent by garnering 15,897 primary votes to his 11,761.  This was a clear victory but I should point out that almost 700,000 people live in that district and the vast majority are registered Democrats.  Would the results have been the same if turnout was higher?  Maybe but also maybe not.

I'm sure the policies embraced by Ms Octavio-Cortez are popular with many, and they stir emotions which got people to vote in the primary.  It may or not be representative of the actual views of the district.

The same thing happens on the Republican side and primary success was the first ingredient that propelled Donald Trump to be the nominee.  His primary success was based on a number of factors but ultimately he generated more enthusiasm among his supporters then the more conventional candidates did, although in many cases his supporters would not have been a majority of the voters.  They were enough to win the primaries.

This impact has led to the divergence of the two parties as both parties nominate people with more extreme views.

Our current process provides a lot of money to people involved in running campaigns and lot of news opportunities, it doesn't provide majority approved candidates in many instances.

It might be better if we had less theatre and more participation in our selection process.  In today's age it should be easier for the parties to provide their members more input into the process.

Just not sure they want to.