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{"id":37969,"date":"2017-10-09T16:25:46","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T21:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/?p=37969"},"modified":"2017-10-09T16:25:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T21:25:46","slug":"iowa-already-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occasionalplanet.org\/2017\/10\/09\/iowa-already-really\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa, already, really?"},"content":{"rendered":"
I remember that Barack Obama, upon leaving office, said that one of his post-presidency goals was to reform our democracy. He seemed to have particular interest in addressing the travesty of gerrymandering and also looking for enforceable ways to reduce or eliminate voter suppression.<\/p>\n
In his first race for the presidency, he seemed to thrive off the elongated, cluttered and senseless system by which fifty states and other territories select their delegates to the national convention where nominees are actually chosen. The first state in play, in 2008 and again scheduled in 2020, is Iowa. This is a state with less than one percent of the nation\u2019s population and whose largest metropolitan area (Des Moines) has not much more than a half million people.<\/p>\n
Yet the state of Iowa has an inordinate amount of importance in the way in which we select our presidential nominees. This is extremely non-democratic for at least three clear reasons besides its small population:<\/p>\n
\n
The length of time that the Iowa caucuses are \u201cin play,\u201d in most election cycles for more than two years, or half the presidential cycle.<\/li>\n
The nature of campaigning in Iowa which stresses trite activities such as mingling with the animals on the farms and later barbecuing them on the grill.<\/li>\n
The media focuses far more attention on Iowa than virtually any other state because of its unique positioning. Most of what the media covers is the horse race.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Barack Obama thrived in the retail politics of Iowa, a system that allowed him to fully utilize the young volunteers and paid staff who were so quickly attracted to his campaign. He was a media star in Iowa, particularly being a serious African-American candidate in a state that is barely 2.5% black. So, it worked for him, but that does not make it a legitimate part of a democratic process to choose our leaders.<\/p>\n