Caucuses

I have an interesting story about the caucusess whicsh I'll share in a bit, but first I want to say that of course I'm disappointed in Iowa Republicans for voting for a pedophile, rapist, thief, fraud, liar, sore loser, and country-destroyer. My political feelings are here.

But this post is not really about how bad Iowans are at judging character, as I believe they're not really all that different from other folks, and everyone is getting a little desperate these days. White folks, anyway, are getting desperate to lock in white privilege, lock out Mexicans, make abortion illegal, and outlaw GBTLQ, which they are still somewhat stuck on. I'm more concerned now with the way Iowa is portrayed in the national media. And, if it's such a bastion of moral Christianity, what's it doing voting for a guy like Trump?

Here's my story: in 1980, I was living in a hovel on East Benton street, near the Armory, in Iowa City. The caucuses were not part of the national news cycle, but Jimmy Carter's boys were determined to make them that way. The Democratic caucus was wide open that year, with Carter, Fred Harris, and Jerry Brown; I was for Brown. But I was the only one for Brown, so they told me to pick one of the others. I picked Harris but rather quickly and ambivalently. Both sides were appealing to me.

But later, I found out that Carter won my precinct. How could that have happened? I voted the deciding vote against him! I was outraged and ended up voting third party in that election and the following one; I refused to support Carter after that.

It was my understanding that Carter had an operative, Hamilton Jordan, who was very smart but somewhat unethical. This Jordan guy was charged with moving in, ensuring that Carter won Iowa, and then showing on the national press circuit that this was a sign that he was the up-and-coming guy and was on a roll. The strategy worked, and from then on, the Iowa caucus was a thing. An important thing. The Hamburg Inn was never the same.

This year, I doubt if Trump fixed the caucuses; he didn't need to. He's got plenty of money that can do that very thing, and he can use it to buy what he wants. Although you can call buying voters "fixing," it's different from what happened to me in Iowa City that year. What bothers me is when the people vote for one person, and another one wins. I have no evidence of that at the moment, although I'm sure it's possible. A thief and a fraud will be that way no matter what he does and where he applies his interest; he's already demonstrated a total lack of morality, as far as I'm concerned.

But can Iowans see it? I'm not sure people are looking at the same picture. Or maybe Biden, in his aging, befuddled representation of the steamroller of the modern "woke" world, makes them so mad that they see what they want.

I find myself thinking Iowa might have been better off if they'd just skipped it altogether. People are blasting Iowa, a if it's a state of cornfed ignormamuses, but I think most states would give you about the same result. And it's not all bad, given that 1) only about half of Repubs voted for Trump, and far fewer will drift toward him than away from him as it becomes clear what a fraud he's been; 2) Iowa doesn't generally pick the winner these days, but rather sets the table with the midwest view of what's available. It's just a starting point, in other words.

These days I'm just about forty minutes from Iowa; we have all the snow, the bitter cold, and the farm country politics. The western part of the state (of Illinois) would for sure have voted just like Iowa. I feel like it's a modern war-time Germany: "Hey people - they're killing children just out of sight!" Not that I have any idea what to do about the Israeli-Hamas war.