Among the things I miss from the 60s are “smoke-filled rooms”:

As with many if not most of our large institutions, these two parties are hollowed out … We saw in 2016, two outsiders, Sanders and Trump—not even historical members of the parties—were arguably the only candidates who brought any real dynamism to the race, whereas if these organizations were strong and highly functional, they wouldn’t even have permitted them to run under their party’s banners.

In this regard, Rosenthal is a man after my own heart: I’m a firm believer that no conversation about institutional decline in America can be had without examining the deterioration of both major parties as gatekeepers to separate serious people from sideshows ….

Stephen Rosenthal, quoted (with approval) by Tim Alberta in 20 Americans Who Explain the 2020 Election - POLITICO

Remember: the Republican and Democrat parties are private organizations. Why do we register voters by political party (in most states) and spend public dollars on “primary elections” to (1) shore up the duopoly as exclusive and (2) allow interloping clowns to steal their nominations?