Staying At The Top
There’s a saying, something to the effect of it’s harder to stay at the top than to get to the top.
Reminds me of Iowa Democrats on our 50-year history as the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Yes, the calendar was changed at Joe Biden’s request to reward South Carolina. Yes, the new calendar makes it nearly impossible for anyone to successfully challenge Biden next year. Yes, this is another short-sighted effect by Democrats to cater to their big city coastal bases, ignoring anyone in both the Central and Mountain time zones, and harming state and local parties potentially beyond repair.
But beyond that, I think Iowa Democrats were too eager over the past decade to give in to every whim of the Democratic National Committee instead of standing firm and holding their ground on a system that worked. Party leaders in the past fought back, and won. The latest generation made unnecessary changes just to appease the DNC, and were set up for failure as a result. What’s the point of having the caucus if it in no way resembles an Iowa-based process? Their new plan to have a mail-in-only caucus is embarrassing, and denies Iowa Democrats of the all-important party building functions of the caucus.
Beyond that, two different Democrat party chairs are now blaming Iowa Republicans for much of this, saying if only Iowa Republicans would go along with having a state presidential primary, all would be well.
That’s a ridiculous argument. All that would do is cost the citizens more money, since primary elections are paid for and run by the state, while caucuses are party events. Beyond that, it would make us nothing more than a small state holding a primary at the same time as larger states, and we’d be ignored. The caucuses made us successfully distinctive for a half century…until national Democrats got in the way, and Iowa Democrats let them.
Notice how as Iowa Democrats changed the caucuses to placate national folks…they’ve done far worse as a party in the state electorally? This lack-of-fight runs far deeper than just the caucuses…with no path toward change any time soon.
