This Thursday evening, approximately 0.05 percent of the United States population will gather together for an arcane ritual in which they will prematurely anoint the next Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.
Skull and Bones Society? Stonemasons? Nope. The Iowa caucuses.
This process is so out-of-synch with American democratic values that it's hard to believe it even exists, let alone plays such an overwhelming role in the presidential race. Not only does a state with a small population get an oversize say in who the parties nominate, but the archaic process means only a small percentage of this state's voters even turn out to caucus. The result: about 150,000 people will make a decision that greatly affects 300 million. The truth is, the Iowa caucuses are just about the least inclusive, least populist, and least democratic voting system anyone could come up with.
Every four years, mainstream media outlets tell us how seriously Iowans treasure this rare responsibility, and how important it is for these special voters to meet the candidates face to face, as if the rest of the country just isn't up to the task.
If Iowans treasure this responsibility so greatly, then why is it that four out of five of them don't even show up to caucus? The most offensive part is, they then have the nerve to hit us with a string of stories about how fed up Iowans are with all the political calls and mailings. Message to Iowans: If you all are frustrated with how this process is playing out, the rest of the country - you know, those of us whose votes don't matter - would be more than happy to have a conversation about changing the system.
The big secret of the Iowa caucuses is that there's no reason why they have to matter so much - even this year. Relatively few people participate, and the number of delegates Iowans send to the party conventions are highly unlikely to make a difference in the end.
It's the media attention lavished on the caucuses that gives them their tremendous impact, anointing the caucus winners with that much-heralded momentum, and virtually dooming the hopes of those who underperform. If news media outlets ever decide to stop treating this bizarre event as if it's the most important political story of the year - then guess what? - it will stop being the most important political story of the year.
Iowans have the right to pick their convention delegates any way they choose, and it would be inappropriate for us coastal elites to tell them how to run things in their own state. But what we can do is stop paying so much attention.
I'm not saying the media should boycott the caucuses - when Iowans finish their voting ritual on Thursday, news outlets should by all means report the outcome - but the story belongs on Page A24 of your newspapers, minute 55 of your nightly broadcasts, and the bottom right-hand corner of this web site.
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I find it hard to believe that anyone could ask for evidence that Iowa has a disproport
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It must seem very unfair that we get so much coverage but here's the deal: it didn't use to be this way. The media is overinvest
Don't hate us! We're privileged voters, but at least we really do take it seriously. I know people who are taking weeklong vacations to go around and listen to all the candidates
GO EDWARDS!!!
As automated voting states poll, Iowa's results can serve as a base to alert skewed crookednes
Maybe the order of primaries should be drawn at random so that other states can go first.
also, we might have a real chance of weeding out the bad candidates early on instead of the good ones.
Ohg.
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