Gay Soldier: Primary Elections

Ronald Reagan Dept: Primary voters in the United States have always been more ideologically extreme than the general electorate, but the current group determining the Republican presidential race has taken matters to the next level thanks to the rise of the Tea Party movement, according to Winnipeg Free Press. Only the most dedicated and ideologically driven party members generally show up to vote in primary elections, Republican or Democrat, Eshbaugh-Soha points out. And the abysmally low turnout for those elections means that during primary season, a small group of ideological voters wields disproportionate influence over the selection of the party's presidential candidate. Those vying for the White House are forced to pander to the small groups of extremists in their parties to win the nomination and wASHINGTON -- They have jeered a gay soldier, cheered the 234 executions Rick Perry presided over as governor of Texas and hooted their agreement that those who fail to buy health insurance should be allowed to die rather than receive state-financed medical care. "If Ronald Reagan was running for president right now, he'd be far too liberal and too moderate for these people; he probably wouldn't have stood a chance of getting the nomination," Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, a politics professor at the University of North Texas in Denton, Tex., said of the late president widely lionized by the right. "Especially now, you end up losing in primaries if you're reasonable and moderate, so the whole phenomenon can end up resulting in a much more extreme candidate and a much more extreme, fractured Congress down the line." (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.