Troops left out of process for choosing presidential nomineesBy Robert F. Dorr
The way the two major parties choose their nominees for president is wrong for all Americans, but especially wrong for service members.
Few of us have a voice in picking the nominees. If you’re in uniform, you may be left out entirely.
“I’m sick of a handful of people in Iowa and New Hampshire making that call,” wrote a staff sergeant on his second tour in Iraq. “My state isn’t one of those with an early primary. So no one in my state, military or civilian, gets to say who the two nominees will be.”
Perhaps unintentionally, he was describing exactly how Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry became the Democratic nominee in 2004. Most Democratic voters, civilian and military, had no say. Iowa and New Hampshire gave him unstoppable momentum.
The Iowa caucuses provide an exercise in grassroots democracy for the tiny number of Iowa residents who participate in them. But they exclude everyone else.
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