… Protecting incumbents from their voters is one thing the Democrats and Republicans can still agree on. Through a series of anticompetitive tactics, the two political parties have created a hidden monopoly structure that accounts for a Congress with a 77 percent disapproval rating yet a nearly 90 percent re-election rate. …
What I learned in grade-school civics is that democracy works when our representatives are accountable to the voters. The insight I gained running for office is that the partisan primary makes them anything but. Political parties have hijacked our elections and our representatives, making representatives accountable not to voters but to the party and its donors. CONT.
David Dodson (Stanford), New York Times