Fault To Go Around At Home
The last few days we’ve blamed Joe Biden, then former DNC chair Tom Perez, for Iowa perhaps losing its first-in-the-nation presidential selection status. And, I would suggest, with good reason.
But Iowa Democrats need to look in the mirror, too.
When they were pressured to make changes, or use unproven technology, they needed to stand up to the national party and publicly call them out for the shenanigans. That did not happen.
That’s a failure of leadership, and not just with one person. I know these days are different, but more than once Dave Nagle—then in his role as state party chair—waved the Iowa flag and dared the national folks to deprive Iowa of its standing. Literally, when threatened with the possibility that if Iowa did not follow certain rules or make certain changes, then the national party would not seat the delegate—Nagle stuck to his guns on behalf of his state and party and dared them to try. They backed off.
That sort of leadership hasn’t been in place for some time. Probably not coincidentally, the state has gotten redder and redder during that stretch, as well.
The best the current state party leadership could do is issue a news release indicating their disappointment, and then blaming Iowa Republicans for not joining them to enact a state primary—as if that would have changed everything and Iowa would still have been first.
Iowa law says our state’s party caucuses must be held eight days before any other contest…that was the deal made with the New Hampshire folks, so we’d have the first caucus and they’d have the first primary. That state law still is in place.
Strong leadership would declare that Iowa’s Democrats will caucus on the same date as their Republican colleagues, in accordance with state law. And instead of delegate selection formally, they’ll do like the Republicans and do a straw poll of attendees. That follows our law, and avoids the risk that the state’s delegates won’t be seated at the convention. And it keeps the national spotlight on Iowa, where it belongs.
It’s not completely that simple…but actually not much more complicated than that. But there is no sign of fight left in Iowa Democrats…frankly on this issue or most others.
