Posted by
Michael on Monday, December 31, 2007 1:24:35 PM
From his Slate column:I was in Des Moines and Ames in the early fall, and I must say that, as
small and landlocked and white and rural as Iowa is, I would be happy
to give an opening bid in our electoral process to its warm and
generous and serious people. But this is not what the caucus racket
actually does. What it does is give the whip hand to the moneyed
political professionals, to the full-time party hacks and manipulators,
to the shady pollsters and the cynical media boosters, and to the
supporters of fringe and crackpot candidates. It is impossible that the
Republican Party could be saddled with a clown like Huckabee if there
were a serious primary in Iowa, let alone if the process were kicked
off in Chicago or Los Angeles or Atlanta. (Remember that not Iowa but
its "caucuses" put Pat Robertson ahead of George H.W. Bush in
the race for the GOP nomination in 1988.) The process might be a good
way for Iowa to pick its party convention delegates, though I frankly
doubt even that. It is an absolutely terrible way in which to select
candidates for the presidency, and it makes the United States look and
feel like a banana republic both at home and overseas.
I went to a Washington state caucus back in 2004, and found it more like some sort of school assembly than what I had ever imagined (or later learned) voting to be like. People became pressured to go with the flow as people often do, and would end up voting for the same candidate as their friend or relative. It's not the process by which I believe this country should pick its two main candidates for the most powerful office. A national primary would make much more sense.