Before the Iowa caucuses, the New York Times published an op-ed calling for the Democrats to ignore the state as being racially unrepresentative.
This must end for Democrats. Everyone knows it. Everyone argues it. But then, everyone throws up their hands. Iowa has been first for nearly 50 years now, a position to which the Democratic Party has given its tacit assent.
Does everyone know it? Does everyone argue it? Does everyone throw up their hands?
The problem with Iowa and New Hampshire, as David Leonhardt laid out in detail in The Times, is that they are horribly unrepresentative of a party that is now, according to the 2017 Pew Typology Survey, 54 percent white, 19 percent each African-American and Latino, and 9 percent other. Iowa is 85 percent white non-Hispanic, and New Hampshire is 90 percent.
Is this a problem with Iowa, or a problem with the Democratic Party? There is no intrinsic reason why the Iowa caucuses come before any other primary. Michael Tomasky argues that the first primaries should be held in Florida and Michigan. The Atlanta Journal Constitution argues that Georgia should go first. I quipped it should be Hawaii, because if you have to spend six months canvassing a state, wouldn’t you rather do it in Hawaii than Iowa?
The argument for states that reflect a racial breakdown that is representative of the Democrats is that it would lock the party into its current status. Remember Solid South? Today’s Dems aren’t the same as yesterday’s Dems and may not be the same as tomorrow’s Dems.
But more to the point, somebody has to go first, and as it happens, it’s Iowa. The smell of the argument against Iowa was close to plausible deniability, that whatever the outcome of the Iowa caucuses, it wouldn’t prove anything because #IowaTooWhite. What nobody saw coming was that the demographic makeup of the Iowa Democrats was the least of the problems.
Is Iowa a metaphor? A harbinger?
Either way it’s a mess — and not the way any Democrat wanted the party’s voting to begin in an election year with stratospheric stakes.
As I drifted off the sleep last night, I heard the somber strains of Rachel Maddow muttering “quality control.” My eyes were closed, so I couldn’t tell if she was smirking.
What Iowa provided on Monday night was a baffling spectacle resistant to any quick, definitive verdict. Hours after the actual, physical caucusing at hundreds of locations across the state had finished, there were no official results, just reports that a newly intricate manner of counting was laborious, that a newly developed app for it wasn’t working as planned, that a backup phone line was jammed and that the campaigns had been asked to join in on a pair of emergency conference calls with state Democratic officials.
There will, no doubt, be a great many discussions about what went wrong, why it went wrong and the legitimacy of the outcome. People will embrace the claims that support their position and candidate and deny all others, because that’s what people do. But there is another perspective, having nothing whatsoever to do with who won, or should have won, and how unfair it is that a bunch of white non-Hispanic folks in Iowa get their say before Florida, which is renowned for its ability to run a fair and trustworthy election.
The more complicated we try to reinvent the world, the more figuratively moving parts are involved, the more opportunity there is for something to go wrong. Iowa’s caucus system was already under fire as being either too complex or allowing the third team to negotiate with the fourth team to undermine the second team’s position. Some call this democracy in action. Others call this politics in action. Still others call this bullshit, usually when their ox was gored.
Is the Iowa fiasco a reflection of the Democratic Party’s inability to run a caucus, which then translates into an inability to govern? Or is last night’s disaster a reflection of an entirely different problem, that as we try to micromanage the world with reliance upon apps, complex systems, empirical theories of demographic righteousness, in order to achieve the promised Utopia, we’ve (yet again) made things too complicated, too theoretical, too prone to fail if any itty-bitty piece fails to do as expected?
There’s an old saying, Man plans. God laughs. Sorry for triggering all you atheists, but I didn’t make it up. Can prolix theories and arguments, plus some name calling and perhaps an expensive dinner with Saira Rao, give us that better world people keep talking about? Is there an app for that?
*Tuesday Talk rules apply.
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As a Floridian, I am begging the rest of you: let us replace Iowa. It’s the best chance we have of getting Vermin Supreme or SMOD into the general.
OK Chad.
Vox Day.
“Creepy Joe was destroyed by Bernie Sanders, so they need more time to produce fake ballots and destroy enough of the Sanders votes.”
I somewhat agree with Hunting Guy that they need more time to perfect the ballot stuffing in preparation for the actual fall election. However, it was not Bernie who won but two new candidates named, “None of he Above” and “Are you out of your F—king Mind?”.
It’s surprising to me that, after all these years, the states still haven’t gotten together for a string of regional primaries.
What we have now is plain old stupid with a ridiculous amount of time and money (and promises) going to two states.
Except they don’t use ballots.
The primary process is like a game of chess; White moves first.
Is there a message this is meant to convey?
New York Times columnist David Leonhardt.
“Iowa Should Never Go First Again: The current system is a form of white privilege that warps the process.”
I think everyone is on the same page as far as the Iowa caucus goes. They don’t have the results in yet because they’re trying to figure out how to screw Bernie again.
Sometimes old tech is best. Paper ballots. ( Steal an election the old fashioned way, stuff the ballot box.)
And a big thank you from the rest of us for listening to Rachel Maddow so we didn’t have to.
She’s perfect to watch when you want to go to sleep.
Will Rogers:
“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat. ”
Where are the Russians when you need them — in this case, to blame this mess on. But don’t worry — Hillary is on it.
Already happening. Just takes a fertile imagination. Hey, you have one of those, Henry.
Great way to show the nation’s independents that Democrats should be in charge. I understand the national committee is considering re-christening this debacle “The Iowa Cock-Us.”
But, but, the Iowa State Fair and the Butter Cow!
Some things are more important than others.
Luaus. Hula dancing.
Hey Robed Rider you ever asked to see a defense lawyers retainer contract when they are wanting to exit? Seems to me the guild”s” still have some work to do in that department…. 😉 So many canceled checks so few words….
P.S. You, or someone…, is really gonna have to start paying attention around here on the weekends before our esteemed host starts pouring tears on his oatmeal instead of fortified brown sugar on the weekends, especially when he sleeps in.
P.S. I know the snow drifts make tracking the bunnies a bit more difficult but WTF man!? It isn’t always a “cow” that takes the blue ribbon for butter carving at the Iowa State Fair. Besides, WTF is up with Nebraska State Fair headliners talking about “dream chickens” ad nauseam? Must be the sugar eh?
D. J. Trump.
“The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is “Trump”.
I don’t understand why so many are so upset. This was proof that nothing beats good old-fashioned American ingenuity. The Russians had nothing to do with it.
Exactly what one would expect a Trumpkin to say.
“At least four precincts had to resolve ties in their vote results by flipping a coin during the evening, Fox News has learned.“
Well, that can’t be any worse than the voting process we’re seeing now.
I think the Democrats need to just write off this election and save their money for the 2024 election.
There’s still a ways to go, and never underestimate Trump’s ability to fuck everything up.
Some random guy on the internet.
“Sounds like watery tarts distributing swords IS a much better system of determining our leaders.”
A moistened bint once lobbed a chef’s knife at me, but her aim was less noble than a coronation.
In defense of digital: Technology does what we program it to do. Programmers do what people with money tell them to do. People with money, often guilty of overestimating their competence and ability to control the future, fail to appreciate the time it takes to design, build, and test something that will work. Programmers shrug and cash their checks.
Programmers:
Digital influencers of the progressive kind:
Now disclosed in the Des Moines Register – “Shadow, Inc.,” the source of the chaos-causing app, was co-founded by two 2016 Clinton campaign workers.
Well, that will explain how Hilary got 98% of the votes when finally reported, even though she couldn’t find Iowa on a map.
Is there an ACRONYM for an incestuous group such as they are? Some had concluded ratfuckers might be a good fit given their mentorship. But who could question the ethic’s of a 501(c)4 progressive nonprofit organization as an investor in multiple for-profit companies? There can never be a conflict of interest when doing god’s work.
But apparently even god wont scrub your websites or edit the Wayback machine when you get caught screwing the pooch.
I’ll come to your house and eat your food, and tell you how much you suck, for a lot less than $2500. If you’re local (SF Bay Area), I might do it for free. Any takers?
Thanks. I’ve already got a wife for that – and she has a target rich environment.