Primaries aren't part of the official voting process though. They're entirely defined by parties and in fact parties can completely do away with them if they want. Primaries aren't actual elections and election laws don't really apply so there is no mechanism to force them to be open.
The solution it would seem, is to do away with political parties completely. Just like George Washington suggested from day one.
How do you define parties in such a way that you can effectively outlaw them? And would that not make fundraising even more important to individual candidates, when there’s no party mechanism to provide support?
>How do you define parties in such a way that you can effectively outlaw them?
To start, you remove party designations from the ballot and any other official voting material. Then you block local governments from being able to assist political parties with primaries/caucuses/conventions - no governmental support for any of the party infrastructure.
People want to have informal parties (ie Tea Party, The Squad, Freedom Coalition, Congressional Black Caucus etc), you can't stop that without infringing on free speech. But government isn't required to support all of the party infrastructure outside of the general election ballot access rules. And with no political party designation on ballot, anybody who meets requirements could gain access, which means no need to fall in line with a party platform. People can vote their conscience.
Primaries aren't part of the official voting process though. They're entirely defined by parties and in fact parties can completely do away with them if they want. Primaries aren't actual elections and election laws don't really apply so there is no mechanism to force them to be open.
The solution it would seem, is to do away with political parties completely. Just like George Washington suggested from day one.