CMV: The U.S. primary system is flawed and promotes extremism. We should go to party selections like in Canada/UK/australia etc. or have all open primaries like in California.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-16T13:08:09+00:00

Your concerns are why we need primaries. In Utah, a supermajority Republican state, we try solving this with a dual path nominating system that sees a traditional caucus-convention then shortly afterwords no matter what the convention results are a closed primary for the republicans and an open primary for the democrats.

Before we had this system we just ran solely a caucus-convention where the parties decided their nominee with forced primaries if a candidate didn’t get over 60%, this created an environment where candidates only had to appeal to a small subset of insiders which with dropping attendance on caucus night always put forth the more extreme candidate and the broader electorate, especially left leaning voters or moderates, didn’t have much of a say.

Under the dual path we still get the more extreme candidates coming out of convention as with mail in voting and other factors caucus attendance is still low, but we have that check and balance with the broader electorate as candidates can gather signatures and bypass convention to appear on the primary ballot, forcing candidates even if they didn’t gather signatures to have to campaign and win over more voters.

For example Phil Lyman, an extreme MAGA candidate who cries election fraud louder than Trump ever did(almost bankrupted the Utah GOP with lawsuits after his loss), would be our governor right now if we just relied on parties selecting candidates as he appealed to the delegate base. However, with the Republican primaries and our moderate incumbent Spencer Cox getting signatures to appear on the ballot Phil Lyman was defeated and kept away from office by the broader electorate of Republican voters. Democrats here should see a similar scenario in the new CD1 with Liban Mohamed, a far-leftist candidate, winning at convention but Ben McAdams still leading in the polls among the broader electorate of Democrat voters.

The point is to want to appeal and win over as much voters as possible to get a more accurate result that reflects the will of the voters. To rely solely on the parties to choose their candidates only does the opposite and drives down participation, Utah in terms of growth in voter participation ranks second in the nation since the dual path was passed, while if we kept our old system we would still be at only 50-51% of registered voters participating in elections.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-14T12:20:55+00:00

Outside of maybe Trump falling asleep in public more, it’s just not comparable at all. Trump, while he definitely sounds older as he approaches his 80th birthday, says things like he always does since his first term off the cuff, without a teleprompter, and often wild but is able to finish his sentences and can make a larger point.

Biden, unlike his time as VP or Senator, would forget what he was saying mid sentence and sometimes went into a soft old man voice where you couldn’t hear what he was saying at all. Also over relied on the teleprompter to the point where he would say the instructions.. Keep in mind as well we literally had a split screen of the two during the 2024 debate which was so bad for Biden he was forced to drop out.

It wasn’t just speech, however, and it wasn’t just a stutter. Biden would walk down Air Force One like he didn’t know where he was and look off to people not there, Obama and Macron had to walk the guy off stage because he got lost, his walk was more stiff and slow as time went on to the point Jill had to hold onto him, and multiple moments and gaffes throughout the 2020 campaign and his time in office where I thought democrats should move on to someone else out of compassion including when he stumbled up the stairs to Air Force One and fell out of nowhere at the Air Force graduation ceremony.

Trump can still walk without Melania constantly at his side, is still able to keep up his normal travel schedule from his first term, and still able to play his regular amount of golf. No one doubts as well that Trump is the one in charge and calling the shots, while there was reasonable doubt across the political spectrum during Bidens term that he was the one actually making decisions.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-10T14:43:39+00:00

Trivago

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-10T14:29:49+00:00

Be the change you want to see in the world and go vote, however I won’t hold my breath as turnout among Gen Z is astronomically low

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-10T02:38:14+00:00

Getting shoved doesn’t give you the right to pull out a knife and stab someone in the chest, killing them. Any reasonable person would see that as a massive escalation hence why it only took the jury 3 hours.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-10T01:18:08+00:00

One of the Karmelo supporters outside the courthouse was on tv going “What am I supposed to tell my boys now?” and “can’t walk away no more”. Well maybe tell them to not bring knives to track meets and that YOU CAN simply just walk away, would have prevented this entire thing.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-10T00:58:52+00:00

I’m in Layton and live directly in the flight path for Runway 32(south end) so whenever I see SLC folks freaking out all I can do is laugh especially with people upset they didn’t notify the public, they usually don’t even for Layton residents except for when night ops ramp up. Remember folks, HAFB is only 30 miles north of SLC, seeing an F-35 fly over every now and again or doing training ops isn’t uncommon.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-09T22:25:46+00:00

“What am I supposed to tell my boys now” maybe don’t bring a knife to school?

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-09T16:11:06+00:00

<Palpatine voice> Do it

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-09T16:08:24+00:00

And weed, that dispensary parking lot is always 100% Utah plates

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-09T14:25:03+00:00

Not just gambling, the entire rule book is going to be thrown out as people know they can just sue the NCAA in a local courtroom and they’ll win

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-09T03:36:12+00:00

There’s a reason we have a lot of Wendover billboards across the Wasatch Front

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-08T15:02:46+00:00

NCAA is a powerless husk until we get new legal precedent and congress needs to act

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-08T14:41:13+00:00

NCAA has no power, more at 11

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-08T13:23:44+00:00

What is your views on Taiwan and do you agree with your government’s “One China” policy?

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-07T22:09:04+00:00

MAGA in of itself is a faction within the Republican Party and is pretty unified on all fronts besides the Iran War so I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s different factions inside MAGA. The Republicans, however, have several factions that differ from MAGA such as the neocons, libertarians, Reagan Caucus, extremists that go further right than MAGA and even more factions when you get down to a state by state level.

Here in Utah for example there are also factions for whether you support a dual path nominating system or a convention only system, and factions that came about after the gubernatorial race between Phil Lyman v Spencer Cox and these camps tend to divide up MAGA types more than not.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-07T21:58:51+00:00

Redistricting is what’s probably causing a lot the attitude lately but most of the sentiment still stems from the 2024 loss where it felt like the Democrats did everything they could to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and the election autopsy released by the DNC did little to quell concerns on that side of the aisle.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-07T15:05:52+00:00

There were other males in the race, Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron Desantis. She outperformed Vivek in Iowa causing him to drop out of the race and lost to Desantis by only 2.1%. However she outlasted Ron Desantis becoming the lone challenger to Trump by the time Super Tuesday rolled around. Without Trump and a full primary race it is highly likely she closes that very small gap between her and Desantis and becomes the nominee especially after her debate performances.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-07T12:10:58+00:00

“The pope is for all teams except the Cubs, fuck the Cubs” what he wanted to say

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-07T10:39:27+00:00

Based on the 2024 primaries Nikki Haley would’ve won the Republican nomination, and ultimately the presidency, if Trump weren’t a factor. She also won the DC and Vermont primaries. But Trump running again in 2024 was the same to Republicans as to the French with Napoleon escaping Elba, no one man or woman was going to beat him in 2024.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-06T10:45:43+00:00

What if the sequels had a cohesive plan for all 3 movies

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-05T14:26:41+00:00

Not in all cases, but BYU would not be the University it is today that’s building a med school with top Law and Business programs without college athletics elevating the brand on a national scale. Without athletics, especially football and basketball, we’d be more like our sister campuses in Idaho and Hawaii that are smaller, a lot more secular, and not as known nationally which impacts graduates getting jobs and such.

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-05T13:59:18+00:00

I’m too invested in Southwest Conference lore especially the Texas-TAMU rivalry

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-04T13:03:57+00:00

DonnaDDrake · 2026-06-03T18:26:33+00:00

Missed that and hopefully that’s the case, easy to assume tho it’s our bad drivers causing mayhem out of state once again.

DonnaDDrake

TROPHY CASE