If I Were an Iowan and It Was Caucus Night, I'd Walk Into My Local Gathering "Undecided"

[David Zephyr]

My heart aches that Al Gore is not on the ticket. He should be. He would have won the nomination and the election, but I guess that is not to be.

I understand the 48% of Iowan Democrats who haven't made up their minds yet. It's a tough call. And it's an important call.

While I lean to Joe Biden, he is still no Al Gore, but then none of the other candidates are either.

Still, Biden might not get the necessary 15% at my local gathering there in Iowa and then what would I do?

Would I go for Barack Obama who reminds me of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King and John Kennedy and who, I think, would launch the nation forward on many dimensions, and at the same time redeem America from its original sin of slavery. Obama, regardless of what his critics say is qualified to lead the nation and I would weep openly if he were President---and would be prouder than a peacock to call him my President. I could stand with Obama.

Or would I walk over and stand with John Edwards who has been pushing all my progressive buttons with his talk of two Americas, corporate greed and excessive corporate power. I have grown to like John Edwards a lot these last months which probably comes as a great surprise to his supporters. I feel that he has shown himself to be quite a fighter, never giving up even when the polls had him so far down that the media quit covering him. He kept fighting and kept his positive tone. That has really endeared me to him a lot, I must confess and I believe he would be the most formidable candidate against any Republican. I could stand with John.

Or would I walk over and stand with Hillary and her supporters? That's probably the toughest one for me as it requires me to overlook a lot of disappointment delivered at the hands of the Clintons. Can I trust her not to run right back to the center/right after the nomination where she and her husband are the most comfortable? Still, all of my misgivings aside, the world under Clinton was a safer place and some of the prosperity did trickle down to the poor. Would the Clintons finally govern progressively if they had one last chance to do so? Could they be the Roosevelts of our time? Or would it be yet another period of coziness with global corporate concerns at the expense of the tragically poor of the world? I would really like to hear Hillary stop playing at the margins and let me know that she will bring more than Bill, The Sequel. I don't want the sequel. I am not sure I could stand with Hillary on caucus night. I would love to, but as of this moment...I'm not there.

I think, in that regard, I am like the other 48%.

[Debi]

1. Weird isn't it? National pollls and even Iowa polls are showing this race

locked up by Clinton/Edwards/Obama - but really 1/2 of Iowa Democratic voters will be walking in not knowing who they'll end up supporting - and not just out of those three but out of all eight of the candidates. January 3rd will be a very interesting night.

[msongs]

2. too bad Iowa caucuses are not really democracy in action, i.e., secret ballot

instead everyone is subjected to arm twisting and social bullying where the dominant males/females rule the roost. A secret ballot would let everyone make their choice without social pressure. I'd be curious to see the difference in outcome with a secret ballot,.

Msongs

Msongs

[TwilightGardener]

3. It's ridiculous that a system based on peer pressure and intimidation

run a bunch of homogenous rural white people is what sets the direction of the nominating process. I get pissed off about this every four years--just fucking burns my butter.

[Itchinjim]

8. My caucus meeting place is in the gymnasium of an inner city Jr. High School.

I will be able to see white folks, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Women, Gays, etc. but I'm pretty sure I won't see a single farmer in the bunch. You may not want to believe it, but Iowa is just like the rest of America only on a smaller scale. It's citizenry is also among the best educated in the nation. A "system based on peer pressure and intimidation"? That's just silly.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Is it secret? Than it's based on peer pressure and intimidation.

And I often work in Iowa, and I know of which I speak when I talk about the population there. In some of the larger cities and near Illinois there might be some variety in the population, but elsewhere, it's uniformly white and rural. Omaha has a sizeable black and Hispanic population, but do they have a significant impact on Nebraska's political scene? Uh, no. It's a white, rural red state.

[Itchinjim]

15. Uh no, it is a purple state, and do honestly believe that the caucus are

based on peer pressure and intimidation? Do you think that caucus goers are terrorized into joining groups? You may often work in Iowa, but that is not quite the same as participating in an Iowa caucus is it? I live here and as I stated above, have attended every caucus since 1988, (I caucused for Paul Simon and when he wasn't viable, I went with Dukakas freely and of my own accord.) so I too do know of which I speak.

[TwilightGardener]

17. If there's any element of social dynamics involved, and if your choice

doesn't count and must be changed because not enough people in the room also want that same choice, then the results are skewed and it's not fully democratic. I don't have to witness it to see what's wrong with it. And if it was just meant for Iowa state politics, then I wouldn't care. But because a VERY TINY percentage of people even participate in the caucuses to begin with (they'd get a whole lot more if they could just go vote, I'll bet), because it's fundamentally flawed as an election process, AND it's more about "organization" than anything else, it's not good for the rest of the country that Iowa plays such a large and undeserved role in the nomination process. Regional primaries must replace this stupid system.

[TwilightGardener]

19. BTW, I meant that Nebraska is a red state--not Iowa.

[musicblind]

4. agree

I agree, a secret ballot WOULD be better!

[David Zephyr]

16. Welcome to the DU.

:hi:

[Itchinjim]

5. As an Iowan who has attended every Democratic caucus since 1988,

I can assure you that there is no "arm twisting and social bullying" by "dominant males/females" It might happen over on the GOP side, but certainly not on the Dem side. If a candidate is not viable, then each viable candidate's group will try to persuade those members to join their group. That's all. There is no peer pressure or bullying. This is Iowa after all, we're a pretty polite bunch.

[TwilightGardener]

10. "If a candidate is not viable"... "persuade..." --you just made my point

on why secret ballots, without ANY social interaction, is the true process of democracy.

[slick8790]

12. That's not true at all.

The true process of democracy is intelligent debate and discourse.

[TwilightGardener]

13. Bullshit--you can have all the debates you want, but nothing matters

until you close the curtain behind you and pull the lever and vote YOUR CONSCIENCE, not "group consensus", not "viability".

[slick8790]

14. If you can't vote your conscience just because other people are around, you need to reexamine

your vote. If you're either so ashamed or embaressed or not willing to stand up for your vote, perhaps you shouldn't vote. If your vote, one of the most powerful tools in democracy, isn't worth standing up for, you perhaps don't deserve to cast it.

[TwilightGardener]

18. Nobody, but nobody needs to know how I vote. My vote is 100% private.

I do not have to tell my family, my friends, my boss, my priest, my neighbor how I vote. The secret ballot is the hallmark of democracy, and your enjoyment of the caucus process, fun and social as that might be for you, doesn't mean it's equal as an election system. Iowa shouldn't be trusted to go first if they can't even follow a democratic system.

[slick8790]

11. This is democracy in it's purest form.

Where people are required to invest more than 30 seconds and a button push. Where people have to participate in a dialogue with those around them, and open themselves to debate.

[wellstone dem]

6. Under the caucus system, you can caucus for Joe Biden

and if he does not have 15% of the folks present, then you can caucus with your second choice.

I've caucused and never saw pressure, I saw cajoling, and laughter, and pleading. But I have never seen anger. I saw caucuses that I would not join, and people would laugh and wave me over, and I would smile and shake my head and move on.

[hayu_lol]

7. Actually, the system appears to work in Iowa. That many of the caucus-

goers haven't made their final decision is probably a good thing. Makes it easier to adjust to what actually happens during the process.

Most of our Iowa DU'ers seem to be pretty level-headed about their system.

What worries me is the recent move by the Kucinich supporters to deliberately skew the process. Dunno if there are enough of them in any one caucus to make a difference.