The Importance of Being Iowa

The real winner this past Thursday was Iowa and its caucuses. Maybe it was the uniqueness of the current presidential election cycle; or perhaps the excitement of the possible first woman or black presidential nominee; or the lack of a clear front runner in a crowded GOP race; or the fact that my son decided to visit Iowa to see the caucuses first hand (he took the above picture in Des Moines)....whatever it was, this was American politics at its best.

People never really understood how the "caucuses" worked, but the proliferation of digital cameras and videos has finally shown how this quirky institution operates from the inside. People showing up for a meeting of about 1 1/2 hours in length, listening to speeches, being cajoled by fellow citizens to vote for whomever, then physically going to a corner of the room to deomstrate a candidate preference. It was fascinating viewing. I wish we had such a system here in Ohio.

Iowa serves several functions in our electoral process:

1) It allows the vetting of candidates by a specific block of voters who demand face to face meetings and old fashioned grass roots politicking. We get to watch, and make our conclusions.

2) It evens the money playing field. Romney outspent Huckabee in Iowa 20-1, but came in second. In a national primary, Huckabee would not have stood a chance. Good people, whether you agree with them or not, can rise to the surface with door to door hand shaking.

3) It protects a minority portion of the population. Not race or gender, but geographically. In a national primary, most of the effort would be concentrated in the large states, and the rest of us would be left languishing in the wind blowing out of New York, Texas, Florida, and California. The big state/small state dichotomy is as old as the founding of our nation, and should be protected. We are seeing a foretaste of this with Super Tuesday in February. It is the Iowa caucuses that have widened the choices.

4) It gives us unexpected surprises. Obama won in a state that is 96% white. It demonstrates that America has moved past most of the racial issues, and celebrates the new black middle class in America in contrast to the Hip Hop thugs. Blacks, as a minority segment of the population, are finally following the traditional immigrant path into mainstream American life. It is the track of the Irish, the Italians, and the Cubans in Florida: first as police officers, then into local political jobs, then into state political office, and finally onto the national scene. It is the another step on the way forged by Condaleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas. It is the best of the legacy of Martin Luther King. Whether one agrees politically with Obama or not, and I don't, we are all the better for his success.

The Iowa caucus system represents the soul of our democracy. Let's all thank the Hawkeyes for a really good show this year.