The Democratic Party primary in Michigan was non-existent in 2000 and registered Democrats, particularly those in Detroit and union members, flooded the polls to vote in the Republican primary held in February of 2000.
The reason was two-fold. Powerful African-Americans in Detroit hated then Governor John Engler and Engler was backing George Bush. This hatred of Engler had little to do with the fact he was a Republican, though that was reason enough for some in Detroit. The main reason leaders in Detroit loathed Engler was his hostile take-over of the Detroit school board in 1999.
Using Michigan law and the power of the governorship, Engler had been warning the Detroit school board members for two years to get Detroit school children back on the right track or he would step in. Corruption on the school board was rampant, the drop-out rate staggering, and even some students who managed to graduate could barely read.
When Engler’s warnings were ignored, he sent in his people to take over the school system in Detroit. The African-American school board was furious. Screams of racism came from the Democratic Party and Engler ignored them all. If anyone felt that trying to secure a better future for the children of Detroit was a racist act, so be it. In an interview after he left office, Engler stated that his only regret was that he didn’t do it sooner.
The only course of action left to the hostile and angry Democrats in predominantly African-American Detroit was to send the people out to vote for the man Engler was not backing–John McCain. This was done publicly and without shame. From nearly every pulpit in Detroit, the “flock” was given its marching orders: Go vote for John McCain. In a city where 81.5 % of the population was African-American, does anyone believe that out of 212,018 registered voters in Wayne County (Detroit) that 103,937 of them actually wanted John McCain to win in the national election?
In the end, John McCain “won” the 2000 Michigan primary by 101,140 votes. The Democratic Party as a whole encouraged the crossover votes because at the time, it knew McCain was a weaker candidate to face Al Gore in the national election. Detroit got its revenge and the National Democratic Party believed it had put McCain in the lead for Republican nomination. One thing is certain, all the Democrat games made a mockery of the Republican primary in Michigan.
In the here and now, it appears the leftist tampering will once again destroy the Michigan primary. In a squabble with the national party, the Michigan Democrats moved the primary date forward to make Michigan “more important” in the choice of a candidate. The only viable candidate not to pull her name off the ballot in Michigan was Hillary Clinton. Supposedly, the win in Michigan will mean nothing to her because the delegates she wins will be banned from voting at the national convention. With nothing to lose, Democrats will once again flood the polls, claim they are Republicans and vote for someone they have no intention of ever voting for in the national election.
There is some confusion among the leftists, however. They are uncertain which Republican will be the greater challenge for the eventual winner of the Democratic nomination. Whether Detroit Democrats will be instructed to vote for McCain or Romney is still unknown. Either way, the primary in Michigan is not an indication on how the state will vote in the national election. Michigan is an important state to carry because of electoral college votes. Romney would stand a better chance of carrying the state in November. With this in mind, the polls showing Romney in the lead are worthless. While he leads among true Republicans in Michigan, McCain will probably get the votes of the meddling Detroit Democrats once again.
The Michigan Republican Party is not the only group suffering from outside interference. New Hampshire may have been invaded by Democrats from neighboring states.
All indications were that Hillary Clinton was going to suffer a devastating loss in the Granite State. The “upstart” Barack Obama was going to win the day–and the delegates. But Hillary pulled off a victory. How? Were the pollsters just totally and grossly wrong? Perhaps they were not all that wrong after all.
If one were listening to the radio the day after the great Hillary come-back in New Hampshire, you heard calls from outraged residents that they couldn’t find a parking place at the polling areas because the lot was full of cars and buses with Massachusetts licence plates. The lines were long with the people that belonged to those cars and had arrived in those buses and it is doubtful that they all had second homes in New Hampshire. Apparently there is an obscure part of the primary rules that states if people are planning to move to the state before the national election, they are allowed to vote in the primary. Is it possible the call went out to the Hillary machine in neighboring Massachusetts to come across the line and vote for Hillary? It certainly is a possibility. The Clintons don’t like to lose and their power within the party is still considerable.
Which brings us back to the Michigan primary. Michigan is run by a Democrat governor. It was she who insisted the Michigan primary be moved ahead over the loud objections of the Democratic National Committee. The only major candidate on the Democratic ballot is Hillary Clinton. She will undoubtedly win the Michigan delegates as all the others have removed their names to honor the national party wishes. But the Michigan Democratic delegates will have no say in choosing the national candidate because their votes will not be counted at the convention. That is the “punishment” for bucking the national party.
If the nomination comes down to the vote of the Michigan delegates, who would be in the Hillary column, how long will it take Hillary to take the DNC to court claiming racism and the “disenfranchisement” of Michigan’s Democratic voters–particularly the African-American vote in Detroit? The party leaders would quickly fold rather than face such charges so close to a national election and Hillary would walk out as the Democratic candidate. Who can say that hasn’t been the plan all along? Sort of an ace-in-the-hole for Hillary–just in case. The Clintons never leave anything to chance.
No matter what happens in Michigan in the primary, primaries in general have been turned into mockeries. African-American voters say Iowa and New Hampshire are not indicators because both states are predominantly white. The western states are in question because of expected voting of illegal aliens from Mexico. The primary system is broken and needs to be overhauled. It needs to be taken as seriously as the national election. The primaries are the jump-off point for the final candidates. One of those candidates will become the most powerful leader in the world today.
The first step in correcting the problem is to have closed primaries. Only card-carrying party members should be allowed to vote whether Democrats or Republicans. If that were the case in Michigan now, the upcoming primary might actually mean something.
Copyright by Barbara J. Stock – www.RepublicanAndProud.com
