Party on

To the editor:

The headline "The New York primary system is leaving too many behind" (The Chief, June 27), is one of many truths concerning the flaws of the closed primary system. More are in this excellent commentary.

Some argue that primaries should be limited to those registered to a particular party because they share the same values. This is bogus. Brad Lander and Andrew Cuomo certainly don't share the same values.

A shared "value" of many wealthy donors to both Democrats and Republicans is insatiable greed. Admittedly, Republicans are more ruthless at this. Even most of the rare Republicans who object to cutting health care and food assistance to the poor do not have the courage and unselfishness to vote against Trump's wishes.

Yes, Democrats are not as bad. But President Bill Clinton's record of signing NAFTA and welfare "reform" that reformed many into homelessness and his cutting of the capital gains tax are just a few examples of his Republican-esque policies. Hillary Clinton later made clear that if elected, she was not afraid to risk starting World War III by establishing a no-fly zone in Syria while the Russians were there.

Democratic leaders considered the Clintons' policies to be aligned with their party. But they didn't feel the same about Bernie Sanders' policies. They considered Hillary Clinton and not Sanders electable. This in spite of Hillary being one of the most despised people in America while a 2016 Fox News poll showed Sanders as the most popular politician in America.

Allowing independents to vote in primaries assures that their views will influence all candidates. Even better would be non-partisan elections. Let candidates run on their values and ideas instead of a political party. To quote Steve Van Zandt, aka Little Steven, "No more parties/I got my own party right here."

Richard Warren