Nikki Haley and the serious problem of open primaries

The two-party system has been integral to America’s governance since its inception when the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists battled it out over the nature of America itself. Since then, the chasm between the parties has varied depending on whether the American people were in harmony over or fighting about fundamental values. But one thing was a constant: People aligned with a specific party got to choose those who would represent them in elections. The “open primary” movement, however, allows people opposed to a party’s values to have a say in that choice, and nothing more clearly shows this than Nikki Haley’s candidacy.

Originally, party insiders, working in the infamous “smoke-filled rooms,” selected the person they thought could win in a general election. Eventually, the process became more democratic when it was opened to all who registered as members of that party. The goal was to allow all voters who adhered to a specific set of values to select the person they believed would best represent those values in a general election.

Open primaries destroy this. They are antithetical to party members having a say in their values appearing on the public stage during a general election.

Image: Nikki Haley (edited). YouTube screen grab.

Sometimes, the open primary means that the final election is a one-party race. One could say that this result makes sense in an area with a strong party majority because it means voters can say what kind of representative they want—but that was supposed to be the point of the primaries! What the open primary system really does in that situation is ensure that when voters are really paying attention, which they do for general elections, the only voice they hear is from that one party. There is no platform for opposing views.

At other times, there’s a more subtle, pernicious effect to open primaries. This happens in hotly contested primaries between two members of the same party. The open primary paves the way for sabotage: The members of Party A don’t get to select their preferred person. Instead, members of Party B vote for Party A’s least-desired person to weaken Party A.

We saw that play out in New Hampshire, where the GOP allows all but registered Democrats to vote in the primary. Republicans voted overwhelmingly for Trump. It doesn’t matter whether it’s because they believe in his values or because they understand that the only way they can fight back against the Democrats’ unprecedented lawfare is to refuse to allow that lawfare to erase Trump from the political scene. What matters is that Republicans want Trump.

However, Nikki Haley managed to eke out a respectable second place, not by persuading Republicans to vote for her, but by getting votes from people who aren’t Republicans:

According to a CNN exit poll, seven in 10 individuals who voted for Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire GOP primary were not registered Republicans.

CNN poll results showed that 70% of those voters were either “Independent or undeclared.” 27% of Haley’s total votes were from registered Republicans, while 3% were from those unregistered prior to participating.

45th President Donald J. Trump won the primary with 54.3% of the total vote.

An exit poll from voters who chose Trump also showed that 70% were Republican, 27% were undeclared and 3% were unregistered.

Because New Hampshire is a semi-open primary (no registered Democrats allowed), the scope for gaming the New Hampshire GOP primary was limited. It’s going to be a lot easier in South Carolina: “South Carolina is an open primary state, meaning that anyone who is registered to vote in the state can choose to vote either in the Republican or Democratic presidential contests—but not both.”

In other words, in South Carolina, Democrats are free to flood the Republican primary. It helps that because Biden is really the only game in town on the Democrat side of the aisle (Dean Phillips is going nowhere), they won’t be wasting a vote that they’d prefer to use for their preferred Democrat candidate.

Writing in Charleston’s hard-left The Post and Courier, one deeply committed Democrat who completely supports the Democrat platform openly spells out his strategy:

I am voting for Nikki Haley in the Feb. 24 South Carolina Republican primary and urge all of my fellow Democrats to as well. Let me explain.

[snip]

Biden would almost for sure beat Donald Trump in the popular vote, which he did last time by a margin of 51.3% to 46.8%). However, despite that, Biden barely won the Electoral College.

In fact, the 2020 election was even closer than the 2016 election.

Had Trump “found” only 42,921 more votes in three states — Arizona (10,457), Georgia (11,779) and Wisconsin (20,682) — the Electoral College would have been tied (at 269 electoral votes for each).

If that had happened, the House would have elected the president by state delegations, and by that measure Republicans had the majority.

[snip]

Nonetheless, the thought of another Trump presidency scares me.

I’d rather have Haley win than turn our democracy over to someone who already has publicly admitted he’d be a dictator. [Ed: Proving again that Democrats not only have no sense of humor, but also, as Salena Zito famously said, they take “him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”]

Clearly, this man, like all other Democrats, believes it is, as they always say, a “threat to democracy” to let the dēmos (the people) vote.

Here’s the deal for Republicans who want to have a say in national elections and who live in open primary states (which is almost half of America): You’d better show up at your party’s primary, or you’ll find your voice shut out of elections forever.