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on their party's platform of the opposition to my own to appreciate his or her conviction and their forthright willingness to show it, and if need be, stand in defense of it.

And there is another problem with allowing independents to vote in primaries. One which, when pointed out, is always likely to draw rancor from independents. With independents voting in a party's primary, the election can be thrown and the will of the majority membership scuttled. The angry response by most independents and those in favor of the independent vote in party primaries is that this just isn't possible, or even if it were theoretically possible isn't going to happen anyway, or is highly unlikely at the very least. But, its already happened. In the Iowa Democratic primary this year, presidential candidate Borack Obama won handily due to the independent vote within the primary, that said, obviously the independents circumvented the majority will of the party's membership.

If there is going to be any change to the open primary process of either or both parties in the states where it applies, that change is going to have to be motivated by the party membership of each. State party officials in both parties have more than adequately displayed, by their entrenched attitudes accompanied by zero action, that needed change is not in their future, unless forced upon them by an outraged membership. Sadly the membership in those states don't appear that outraged. It may be a combination of factors. Too often we grow complacent, seemingly okay with unacceptable situation and circumstance simply because ... it is. As often, many that are registered to a party simply don't realize that in essence they are the party, not the hierarchy. There is no rule carved in stone that says their state has to hold open primaries, diluting their votes by outsiders who will not register with a party but want a say in it at the party's most important function, selection of their candidate for the general election.

Though far from the only reason, I believe this is a heretofore, basically unmentioned reason that both parties have become so diluted over the last few years. An ever increasing number of independents taking advantage of open primaries. This is why so many note that they can hardly see the difference between the Democrat and Republican parties. You didn't hear much of that in the 1990s or before, it's an advent moreover of the new millennium, and increased interference of independents into party selection

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