2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: In my opinion, the beginning of yesterday's convention [View all]Uponthegears
(1,499 posts)However, to claim that ANY decision should be made based upon the actions of a handful of children (I am alternating with "children" with "Yahoos" now that I have looked up the latter) is pure opportunism.
To the point of your OP, I agree primaries are a must (caucuses are just fundamentally non-democratic) and I would also agree closed primaries are preferable, so long as same-day registration is available.
I like new people and new ideas being brought into the party. Moreover, mechanisms designed to make sure that the only people who participate in ANY phase of the electoral process are people who "care enough" to take the steps necessary to participate sufficiently ahead of time is the (unstated) goal of GOP (which deems those who decide late, and/or for whom the political process is immaterial for 364 days a year to be "unworthy" of the right to vote) efforts at voter suppression and I just refuse to be any part of that.
Edited to add: Allowing/encouraging same-day registration also gives the party a way to check for shenanigans like crossover voting. While our ballot is secret, our registration is public record. If there is a problem with GOPers, etc. using same-day registration to affect primary results, the party would be able to tell.