Repeating history...again....

(This post is written for the weekly Carnival of Ohio Politics now in it's tenth week thanks to Paul Miller at Northwest Ohio Net make sure to visit Wednesday to see what some of Ohio's best bloggers are writing about)

Let's flash back to the early 1900's:

The Reverend Herbert Bigelow of Cincinnati was instrumental in gaining passage of the direct primary in Ohio, which became law in 1906. Ohio's direct primary law required a primary election for candidates running for state, county, and local elections.

Americans were becoming more and more concerned about corruption within the political process in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These concerns contributed to the growth of Progressivism, a major reform movement of this era. One reform instituted by Progressives in many states was the direct primary. Until the advent of the direct primary, political parties usually chose their candidates in closed-door meetings or at political conventions. As a result of this process, a few influential people were often able to manipulate the party's choice of candidates. Progressives believed that this process led to political corruption and kept elections from being truly democratic. With a direct primary system, the voters chose for themselves who would represent their political party in the regular election.

Then, take a moment and read what Michael Meckler wrote on Red-State:

(Chris) Redfern once told me during his campaign for ODP chair that he wanted to be the Democratic Bob Bennett, by which he meant that he wanted to achieve the same degree of success and stability for Ohio Democrats that Bennett has achieved in his 18 years running the Ohio GOP. One of the hallmarks of Bennett's tenure has been the avoidance of primaries, which has allowed Republican candidates to save their money and their venom for Democrats in the general election.

Read this again:

....a few influential people were often able to manipulate the party's choice of candidates. Progressives believed that this process led to political corruption and kept elections from being truly democratic. With a direct primary system, the voters chose for themselves who would represent their political party in the regular election.

We either need to learn to raise the dead and bring back Reverend Herbert Bigelow; give up on the primary process; or demand that this stop and that we have a choice.

I think you know which option I'm selecting.....