05 February 20
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Founder, Reader Supported News
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04 February 20
FOCUS: Amanda Marcotte | Iowa: Take a Chill Pill Everybody
Amanda Marcotte, Salon
Marcotte writes: "Going into the Iowa caucuses Monday night, the stakes felt sky-high compared even to other dramatic years, like 2016 or 2008. Even though, realistically speaking, the differences between how the Democratic candidates would govern as president are pretty small."
Amanda Marcotte, Salon
Marcotte writes: "Going into the Iowa caucuses Monday night, the stakes felt sky-high compared even to other dramatic years, like 2016 or 2008. Even though, realistically speaking, the differences between how the Democratic candidates would govern as president are pretty small."
EXCERPTS:
For months, there's been an increasing criticism of the choice to have the Iowa caucus kick off the Democratic nomination process. This was notably kicked off by former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, who dropped out of the presidential race months ago and began complaining about the fact that such a non-diverse and largely rural state has such an outsized influence. Iowa's caucus-goers were reportedly 91% white, but only 59% of Democratic voters nationwide are.
Even before the tech meltdown, watching cable news coverage of dazed reporters wander through rooms full of dozens of bored-looking white people having half-baked arguments, which at least were conducted with Midwestern politeness, made one feel that Castro is right. The Iowa caucuses suck up an ungodly amount of time and resources from candidates that could have otherwise be used to campaign against Donald Trump. The end result, unfortunately, is a lot of bad blood between campaigns who will likely have to get over their differences and forge a semblance of unity in the next few weeks or months.
As Iowa-based reporter Lyz Lenz wrote on Jan. 28 — which, for those keeping track at home, was several days before the caucuses — "There are new rules for the caucus that try to give it oversight and accountability without actually changing anything. And guess what? It's going to be a fucking mess."
This was made worse by former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who seized on anecdotal evidence that he may have outperformed expectations to give a speech in which he declared himself "victorious." This has been taken as further evidence of "fixing," as Buttigieg is poised to pick up more moderate Democratic voters if former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign badly implodes. In reality, it's just more evidence that Buttigieg, who has been fighting above his weight class this entire race, thinks rather highly of himself.
The reality is that caucuses are a dumb way to kick off a nomination process, as many people pointed out on Twitter even before it was clear that the delays in reporting were significant:
Besides increasing pressure to replace the outdated caucus system with a more civilized primary, the other silver lining in these delayed results is that it keeps the candidates honest. They have to keep on campaigning without pretending that an unrepresentative state that barely adds to the delegate count is a make-or-break moment. It's time for everyone to break their addiction to the Iowa caucuses.
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