Today, I received an email that started, “Do You Support Florida in the Primary Mess? If not, I don't really want to get into a debate about it on list, so send me a off-list e-mail.” I think this is misguided in several different ways.

First and foremost, I’m very concerned about the compression of the primary schedule. I believe that the political process is best served by on the ground retail politics. By spreading out the primary schedule, it gives more time for candidates to be on the ground in the state shaking hands with real people. Yeah, it would be great if one of the first primary states were Connecticut instead of New Hampshire. That way, I wouldn’t have to take my daughter out of school and drive a couple hundred miles for her to be able to participate in retail presidential politics. Yet I also realize that in some states people have to drive over twice the distance my family traveled just to get to the State Capital.

The more compressed the primary schedule gets, the more candidates will rely on national advertisements and the big dollars required to buy them. It moves us further from the political involvement and deliberative discourse that our country needs.

I recognize the concern of states later in the primary schedule. In the last Presidential cycle, here in Connecticut, the candidate that I was supporting had already withdrawn from the race by the time the primary came around. Yet I don’t believe that changing the primary schedule is the most effective way to address this problem.

Instead, we need to find ways to get people more involved. There are two projects that have recently caught my attention. The first is the Democratic Youth Strategy Network. They are working on “a revolutionary new web
tool that will empower progressive and Democratic activists to run for
office.” I haven’t seen the new web tool so I cannot comment on how revolutionary it really is, but we need tools that encourage and empower people to get more involved, including running for office.

The second project that caught my attention is the National Presidential Caucus. They encourage people to

Come together, face-to-face, with your friends, your neighbors, your community, your country, to deliberate the issues & choose our leaders. Engage in the National Straw Poll on Nov 9th. You CAN make a difference.

It is this coming together, face-to-face to deliberate the issues that I believe is essential to our democracy. A compressed primary schedule doesn’t help this. Watching a few advertisements on national television before voting doesn’t help this. Emails discouraging a debate don’t help this.

Yes, I am concerned about people it states with later primaries not having as much of a voice in the process. One way they can have a stronger voice is to participate in projects like the Democratic Youth Strategy Network and the National Presidential Caucus. These projects will do a lot more to help people find their voices in the political process than simply moving a primary date.

(Cross-posted to Greater Democracy)