Logic of political parties

[Professor]

http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/GAB- ... 94206.html

According to the article, Wisconsin spent $7.6 million on the Presidental Primary election. Here in LA, our Republican Primaries are closed, meaning Dems and others cannot vote in them. Our Dem Primaries are open, however.

Here's the part I don't understand. Political parties are private organizations. They take private donations. They are not funded with public money. So, how can we spend millions of dollars on an election for a private entity?

It really is not any different than the US government funding the election process used to elect the Chairman of the Board for a large corporation. The "nominee" of the party is nothing more than the leader of that party, same as a Chairman leads a company. How is the party able to access publicly-owned voting machines, staffed by publicly-payed employees, using publicly-bought ballots, in order to choose who will be their nominee for whatever office is being elected?

So far, the only answer I have is, "The politicians who are in office are part of those parties, and they say it's OK." That is an extraordinarily unsatisfying answer, though.

[J.K. Gregg]

Is there any way to eliminate political parties all together? That would be my preference.

[The Comrade]

you will never eliminate ideological groupings from politics. ever.

[J.K. Gregg]

Yeah, you're probably right.

[Professor]

[spacemonkey]

All political parties and candidates are for sale imo.

[WizardfromOz]

[Davethulhu]

[Dylan]

Mixed primaries help alleviate the danger of political parties.

[Professor]