Once upon a time, primaries were limited to registered members of a given party.  The theory was that, in the spring, when only people obsessed with politics are paying attention, the base would get to choose the candidate most likely to win while representing their values.  Then, in the fall, when all Americans are paying attention, the parties would have their chosen representatives face off against each other while articulating why their respective parties' values were the best for America.

The open primary system changed all that.  Now people from any party can vote for any candidate.  The theory is that this will force candidates to play to the middle, not to the base.  The reality is different.  First, candidates have to be even more extreme to grab their base.  Second, people from the opposite party try to game the system by voting for the worst person to represent the other party in the fall election.  In other words — Operation Chaos.

This is a terrible way to choose presidential candidates.  This statement is true even if the Democrats' version of Operation Chaos was part of what elevated Trump, arguably one of America's greatest presidents, to become the Republican candidate.

The problem with an Operation Chaos tactic, as Democrats discovered to their horror, is that the person they think will lose might actually end up winning.  Just to refresh your recollection, here's footage showing Democrats begging Trump to run and hoping that he would prevail in the primaries because they were certain that Hillary would destroy him:

The Democrats stopped laughing late in the evening on November 8, 2016.

Bernie Sanders is currently tagged as the candidate who cannot possibly become president.  He's a socialist, for goodness's sake!  The American people would never vote for a socialist — except that across America, that's precisely what American people are doing.  We are seeing the effect of the leftists' 50-year march through America's educational and media institutions.

Moreover, for the last three years, the American people have been told that Trump is evil.  We want to think they're smart enough to see through the lies, but the reality is that a sense of revulsion can sink into people's psyches and anchor itself there.  So there's every reason to believe that Sanders might indeed be able to win.

It's not as if Joe Biden, who is now trailing Bernie for the Democrat nomination, is a scarily unbeatable opponent.  As noted here on Sunday, Biden has a long, painful track record of corruption and stupidity.  His only fixed principle is that he has few principles, and he's showing escalating signs of mental confusion.

Michael Bloomberg also is not a formidable candidate.  He's certainly rich enough to buy advertising and campaign headquarters, but he's charmless and boorish.  As mayor of New York, he showed a decided tyrannical streak when it came to micromanaging people's lives.  His fierce support for abortion and his opposition to guns will not endear him to many Americans.

In other words, of Biden, Bloomberg, and Bernie, all are possible winners and possible losers — but it's only Bernie who has the potential to destroy America and turn it into Venezuela.  So should people really be playing chaos games with the election based on their belief, an unfounded one, that Bernie is certain to lose?

By the way, Tucker Carlson shares a concern that Bernie is a more effective and dangerous candidate than Republicans, including Trump, give him credit for being:

If you're a Republican and there's a primary in your state, vote for Donald Trump.  The more people who vote for him now, the more momentum he has going into November.  That matters.  And let the Democrats chose their candidate for better or worse.  If it's to be a showdown with socialism, so be it, but it's not our job to force the issue.  After all, we might end up as unhappy on November 3, 2020 as the Democrats were on November 8, 2016.