After the 2016 presidential election, traditional political parties were clearly becoming less and less relevant to voters. It had become obvious to many voters that only candidates vetted by the economic elite would be on the ballot. Both parties had been co-opted by big money, resulting in the effective disenfranchisement of most ordinary people since the issues of the regular citizens were not a priority.
The Republican Party effectively imploded, running 17 candidates and finally choosing a wild card from the fringes of the party. The Democratic Party, at the behest of the monied elite, responded by blocking the only candidate who might represent the ordinary citizenry, giving many voters no one to really vote for.
The result was the Democratic Party imploding and allowing a seemingly defunct Republican Party back into power. Hilary might have had more popular votes, but she had no coattails, allowing a nearly complete national takeover by the Republicans.
The intelligent lesson for Democrats to learn from 2016 would have been to unify around the needs of the ordinary citizens as an earlier Democratic Party had done, but they only seem to have decided that the reason for the Republican win was that the Republicans started with so many candidates-a truly dumb conclusion.
Not to be outdone and trying to use the techniques of the winning Republicans in 2016, Democrats, in pursuit of an even bigger win than the Republicans, are now running over 20 candidates-the number seems to be growing each week.
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With no clear message other than "anyone but Trump" such a fractured and dysfunctional Democratic Party provides voters only with confusion.
This tactic is more like an idea from the movie "Dumb and Dumber" than anything even remotely rational, nor is it a likely winning tactic.
Bob Passi
Baxter
