Iowa Caucus Postmortem
The Iowa caucus is a weird thing, no doubt. The 2020 Democratic Iowa Caucus is considered a mess. It should be noted that the Democrat caucus was a ranked choice vote that added a wrinkle in the process and with so many candidates that year was probably never going to do smooth. The Caucus is weird though. I defend it on the basis that if forces politicians to interact with the public. That’s important. I do think maybe there is something about viability from it on the Democratic side (Iowa loved Obama and disliked Hillary which both seem prescient) but on the Republican side the nation is out of step with Iowa (Huckabee, Santorum, Cruz). The idea of the caucus is to discuss politics with like minded neighbors and I think many have experienced that. Here’s the thing though and I won’t say it’s not weird. It’s a physical act. You have a time to show up and vote. It is not an election where you vote between 8 and 8. You have to show up at a certain time (6:30 was the prescribed time