# Is there a beter way for American politicial parties to choose a candidate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-beter-way-for-american-politicial-parties-to-choose-a-candidate/792988>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 7, 2017, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-beter-way-for-american-politicial-parties-to-choose-a-candidate/792988 "2017-08-07T11:22:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-beter-way-for-american-politicial-parties-to-choose-a-candidate/792988/41 "2017-08-11T11:35:38Z")

</div>

Another way to look at this question is, how do we do a better job of choosing the choosers?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2017, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-beter-way-for-american-politicial-parties-to-choose-a-candidate/792988/42 "2017-08-11T12:29:08Z")

</div>

> [@igor\_frankensteen](#):
>
> This is magical thinking, though I know you don’t realize it. […] And that’s absurd, when you realize that the vast majority of us, even the ones who really work to know who we are voting for, just don’t have either the time or the resources, and most of all THE DIRECT KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT’S BEST FOR THE COUNTRY, to recognize the best person.

Given that I’m usually the one making your statement, I’d say that while I’m sure that my method is not the best that it ever could be, trying to get people together in a room to actually grill each of the candidates certainly seems like a better method than what we have now. trying to give them a structure that requires them to think more about the question of who a person is beyond “Agrees with my worldview” and “Doesn’t agree with my worldview” is also, certainly, going to be a bonus. People do a better job of thinking when the problem on a quiz is more difficult to deal with.

What we have now, after all, has sufficed for 200+ years so it’s not like perfection in the system is mandatory. But any improvement, even a minor one, is probably the difference between 200 or 300 more years of democratically elected representative government.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-beter-way-for-american-politicial-parties-to-choose-a-candidate/792988.md?page=2)