The Iowa Caucuses Are a Sham

Why do we keep doing this? The fact that so many people are shut out of this undemocratic procedure because they simply can't make it to the precinct location at 7pm on a weeknight, for up to 2 hours or more, because they have to work/take care of kids/etc. is simply wrong. It's elitist in all the wrong ways, it allows 20% of one small state's voting population, mostly white and mostly able-bodied -- and who are vastly made up of the political activists responsible for continuing this travesty of a sham of a joke of the democratic process, the ones least likely to actually need government assistance -- to be able, in large part, to decide which two or three candidates of each party (out of 8 to 10 candidates) are viable for the rest of the primary season. And the corporate media has decided, unthinkingly and unfailingly, to declare "winners" based on delegates each candidate supposedly "won" based on not how many show up to vote/caucus (maybe an undecided person will switch to Clinton in the second round of voting/caucusing because her supporters are giving out cake) but rather based on turnout in the precinct's previous two general elections. If this all sounds complicated and obfuscatory it's because it is. Oh, and then there's this rule for the Democratic caucuses that says a candidate is only viable to pick up any delegates in each precinct (there are 1,781 precincts in Iowa for Thursday's dog and pony show) if he or she receives 15% of that precinct's caucus-goers, with two rounds of voting to try and pry off supporters of one candidate to make another viable. So, ba-bye to Richardson, Dodd, Biden, Kucinich and Gravel right off the bat.

This isn't a game, and I hate it when I hear people in Iowa staying away because they just can't make it or are uninterested. Part of me wants to kick them. Take the night off, or just bring your kids to the precinct, figure it out. But then I think, no, actually some of these people actually could lose their job for deciding to help pick a president, or just can't drive themselves, or who are just too old to be out and about that late in the evening, when it's dark. And it's fucking early January in fucking Iowa.

This sucks. It is way too early to be deciding who will be the Democratic and Republican nominees for POTUS. At best we can hope for a virtual tie in the delegate count at the end of the night Thursday, just so it can be competitive through New Hampshire (there's another sham, albeit a more democratic sham -- and New Hampshire is even whiter than Iowa) and beyond. The sad thing is it might just practically be over and a nominee all but declared by our Dear Corporate Media by February 5th, when most of the country gets to actually vote on their choices. We should really have a national primary on one day, say in late May, when everyone votes at once and candidates are forced to campaign everywhere. But no, Iowa and New Hampshire are king, "momentum" is the game, and winners must be declared before virtually anyone actually votes. Total bullshit.