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know the kind of candidates a party is going to proffer for the final selection process. Someone who is going to share the memberships general views and beliefs. A member from their ranks who has agreed with, and to, the party's platform.

On the other hand, independents who stand with no party or their platforms, I would hope as well, have taken the same due time and consideration, though again I realize that's not always the case. They've decided they don't particularly agree with either party's platform, and make the pronouncement by registering independent, that they're open to any and all candidates in a general election. fine, but by doing so they have - or at least should have - forestalled their right to vote in the secular primary process.

State party officials of both major parties are more to blame in the practice of open-door primaries of their state's voting process than anyone else. Their reasoning is obvious, They are looking to draw in as many potential voters as possible in the general election, and feel if an independent votes in their party's primary, they will be voting the party's ticket in the general election. Democrat party officials like the idea of independents being allowed to vote in their primary because generally speaking independents have historically leaned toward the left in their politics, so they keep an abstract part of their voting constituency happy. On the other side of the ticket, The Republicans party is the smaller of the two parties, not only do they need to draw votes from moderate Democrats in a general election, they need to draw independents into their fold, and as mentioned, if they allow them to vote in their primary they feel the independent will vote Republican come November.

This is however, a slap-in-the-face insult to either party's members. These are people who have chosen a party for whatever their personal reasons, support that party and it's candidates, and often take considerable flak in doing so. I mean no disservice nor insult to anyone registered as an independent, but the reality is that they have an easy out in any political conversation or argument, if the heat from the discourse gets a little too hot, they simply need only say, "Oh, I'm not registered to any party, I'm an independent." I applaud Democrat and Republican alike in being the ones who take not just a political stance on a particular candidate, but a wider political stance on a party platform. I don't have to agree with a person who stands

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