Tuesday saw the usual first-week-of-June gaggle of state primary elections. It's a feature of the American federal system that states choose when to hold primary and local elections.

Back in the 1850s, as historian Roy Franklin Nichols notes, there was an election in all but one or two of the 24 months in the two-year congressional election cycle. From the results, in those pre-polling days, politicos and pundits drew conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the Democrat and Republican political parties and their various candidates.

Congress in 1872 set a single date for congressional elections, but the proliferation of primaries in the early 20th century gave us, once again, elections scheduled around the calendar. Primary elections don't always give clues about the parties' general election strength. But they do tell us something about the state of mind of the followers of both parties, and they sometimes bring forward candidates with the capacity for future national leadership.

This year's primaries seem to be providing little in the way of good news for both parties' futures. Both parties' primary electorates seem focused on fighting the same old battles they have been fighting since Donald Trump clinched the Republican Party presidential nomination 121 months ago.

Republican primary voters have been obediently following the orders of a president who must leave office two and a half years from now. Democrat primary voters seem focused on endorsing whoever denounces him most vitriolically.

Thus, 75 percent of Louisiana Republicans rejected Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on May 16, 55 percent of Kentucky's 4th District Republicans rejected Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on May 19, and 64 percent of Texas runoff primary voters rejected Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on May........

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