Forward Oregon

It is standard for presidential candidates pander to Iowans about the sacred nature of their caucuses. Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson recently had this to say:

The senator “absolutely supports Iowa’s first in the nation status. Senator Clinton has worked her heart out campaigning in Iowa because she knows it plays a unique and special role in the nominating process and that role must be protected. As she has said many times she is glad Iowans are entrusted with this responsibility because they take it so seriously.”

As they say, don’t hate the player, hate the game. Otherwise, all three of the Democratic front runners would deserve scorn for supporting the Iowa caucuses first in the nation status. The problems with a nearly all white state (91%), which hasn’t harnessed the new economy going first are profound. The primacy of Iowa forces any Senator or Representative who is even considering running for President some day, to vote for massive agriculture subsidies, like for ethanol production, which hurts both third world and our economies.

But, even if you want to ignore the problems with Iowa going first, the caucus system itself is highly undemocratic and elitist. I am really tired of hearing the MSM talk about how in Iowa its real participatory democracy and that voters get to have candidates in their living rooms. Any system that prevents a member of the Iowa National Guard serving in Iraq or Afghanistan from having a say in the choosing of their commander in chief needs to be reformed. Any system that prevents an ER doctor from choosing who their President will be because they have to sew up victims of car crashes and are too elbow deep in blood to stand around for hours caucusing, needs to be reformed. Assuming that everyone can show up at a given time and wait around for hours to elect the resident is undemocratic and elitist. Sure it would be fun for wonks, but we should privilege access over fun.

The Iowa Democratic Party had this to say about the problem of voter access:

Scott Brennan, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, said the party had no responsibility to ensure that voters can caucus. “The campaigns are in charge of generating the turnout,” Mr. Brennan said, and the voters who truly care will find their way to their local caucuses.

As for Ms. Tope, the emergency room worker, “there’s always the next cycle,” Mr. Brennan said.

That being said Obama over Clinton by 2.2%. Edwards trails Clinton by 4.1%. The choice for sacrificial lamb goes Huck, Willard, McNuts. Those are my predictions.

Please don’t use this post against me if I ever run a Presidential campaign in Iowa.

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Tags: Iowa, Obama, Caucuses, Democracy