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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIowa is first in the nation for a reason
http://iowadailydemocrat.com/news/2015/10/iowa-is-first-in-the-nation-for-a-reason/
Credit: Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitor's Bureau
By Jack Hatch 10/23/15
Des Moines, Iowa Iowa becomes the focus of the political world again Saturday as we Democrats hosts our Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, where activists and party pooh-bahs get a chance to hear from the major presidential candidates with the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses just over 90 days away.
And just as sure as the traditional J-J bucket pass is the fact that some East Coast media hotshot, working his or her way through a Centro calzone, will decide to write the mercilessly flogged piece about Why Iowa Goes First.
Its so pervasive, some political scientists even wrote a book, Why Iowa: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process in 2009. (David Redlawsk with Caroline Tolbert and Todd Donovan).
And here we go again this weekend.
FULL story at link.
riversedge
(70,059 posts)uawchild
(2,208 posts)I can't help but feel that having two states like Iowa and New Hampshire that are soooo unrepresentative of America is a purposeful choice to avoid discussing the real issues confronting the country as a whole. So much early attention is given to the electorates in these states that by the time larger more diverse state enter the process the national agenda and talking points have already become set in stone.
BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)You have to show up at a fixed time, and stay for hours? If you had to do that in a general election, it would be unconstitutional. Caucuses have far lower turnout than primaries-- I remember in 2008 some states had both caucuses that selected all the delegates, and meaningless primaries that were symbolic, and still more people voted in the primary than in the caucus.
Have kids at home? Work a fixed shift? Out of town on business? Deployed somewhere else? Sorry, no voting for you!
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Ever hear of a black writer praising these all white all the time States going first?
It takes a lot of moving parts and lots of verbal oiling to keep such massive systemic machine running and avoiding all the logical arguments why states with 90% white folks, mostly rural - just like all of America we insist! - get such a "privilege"...it is almost like it was a plan.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Oh wait.....
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)overcome the handicap within the Democratic Party....but the Democratic Party voters are not quite like the Republican Party voter on race, are they?