General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Those taking a strict "no Dem must be primaried" position may have a point... [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The reasons for primary challenges aren't limited to actually denying incumbents renomination. Primary challenges can also be used to either persuade a challenged incumbent to change some problematic positions-Eugene McCarthy started out in 1968 simply believing that a relatively strong showing for a peace candidate against LBJ could induce Johnson into ending the war against Vietnam, without actually denying him renomination-or to raise issues that otherwise weren't being dealt with.
There is a lot of pressure in the party right now to prevent or at least significantly limit discussion on the issues and the efforts to discourage the idea of primary challenges are at least part OF that pressure.
The question of primary challenges and the question of internal debate and democracy are related.