BETWEEN THE LINES
Jonathan Alter
Slumber Party
The caucuses are key. That doesn't mean they aren't dull.
The Iowa Democratic caucuses are a snooze---not the various campaigns for president but the caucuses themselves. I've attended several over the years as a reporter and invariably walk out before they're over. This year, the soporific nature of the process, which can take as long as two hours, will most harm Barack Obama, for reasons I'll explain.
You've read how the caucuses are undemocratic because they disenfranchise people who work at night--how they violate the principle of the secret ballot. But that's just the Democratic caucuses. The Republican caucuses, which date only to 1980, are a breeze. You show up at 7 p.m., you vote almost like in a primary, you go home. If you're on the night shift, it's usually easy enough to take part while on break.
The Democratic caucuses, by contrast, feel like the SATs, where a fussbudget caucus chair, enjoying his or her moment in the sun, explains a mind-numbing series of rules and insists that you obey them if you want your effort to count. The instructions for the caucus chairs run to 72 pages. If you're lucky, the chair won't read any more than 10 of them aloud.
The procedures are so stultifying I'm reluctant to list them here, but to give you a flavor, consider that before moving to various corners of the room with other supporters of the same candidate for the preliminary vote, you must sit through the vote on the permanent caucus chair (self-nominations welcome), official letters from more than a half-dozen Iowa politicians (most chairs are merciful enough to allow these to be distributed), and a lengthy explanation of the delegate-selection process that requires an advanced degree in mathematics to fully understand.
By the time the caucus chair finishes explaining the ramifications of "viability" (the 15 percent necessary for a candidate to receive any share of delegates to the county convention that will select delegates to the state party conventions that will in turn choose the individuals who go to the Democratic Convention in Denver), you're ready to shoot yourself.
Yes, there are brisk caucuses with smart folks running them that restore your faith in this odd tradition. But many of the caucus chairs are well-meaning lawyers and civic activists who have spent a lifetime debating "process." These are the kinds of people who actually enjoy sitting around discussing arcane party rules, and seem oblivious to the pain they might inflict on others. For these Democrats, any level of stupefaction is OK if it's in the name of "fairness" and "community" and "participation." That's big-D Democratic participation. They figure it's their party and they'll bore if they want to.
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Member Comments
Posted By: flype @ 01/04/2008 10:15:43 PM
Comment: I would like to add this comment. Iowa may have gotten more than its predicted 10 percent participation. That said, I remember many years in WA. State that we were happy to get even five percent caucus participation.
That says it all for me. To have even FIVE percent of a State elect their Democrat or Republican candidate simply sucks.
We have an African American, a Woman, a Preacher, and a former War hero resulting in a some 10 percent caucus turnout... that suggests that some 5 percent elected Obama, Clinton or Edwards and the other 5 percent had a choice between Huckabee and Romney and others.
This is hardly a mandate for Democracy or for Independent choice. This system gives no room for Independents or for real Mavericks. Continue your delusional caucus euphoria but recognize that some 90 percent of voters do not participate in them!
I advocate a return to open primaries ... and those that allow multiple choices, not just for Democrat or Republican but for Independents. Socialists, Libertarians ???. Whatever.
Secateur.
We have an African American, a Woman, a Preacher , a former War hero .result in a some 10 percent turnout.... That suggests that some 5 percent elected Obama, Clinton or Edwards and the other 5 percent had a choice between Huckabee and Romney and others.
Hardly a mamdate for Democracy or for Independant choice. This system gives no room for Independents or for real Mavericks. Continue your delusional caucus euphorea but recognize that some 90 percent of voters do not participate in them!
Return to primaries ... and those that allow multiple choices, not just for Democrat or Republican.
Secateur
Posted By: flype @ 01/04/2008 9:38:03 PM
Comment: Caucuses and the use of persuasion _ _ _ in those some two hours, one half hour is usually used to EDUCATE the political neophytes as to what to do. Elect a precinct chair, who often has to be educated at the last moment.
Campaigning also includes smart issue participants to push for their candidate. It creates a bias for the most radical of both parties to succeed in swaying the new caucus goers. Prepared and politicized caucus chairs can and will always move the agenda to their own prejudices
After the mathematics and 15 percentile merry go-rounds one goes on to referendums and proposals to the party. Once again the party elite can influence the newcomer simply by having prepared statements and referendums already printed out. The newbie has no chance at all. That said even with the precinct chairs influence, most of the caucus suggestions never make it through the next steps of the urban political grinder.
As for the ???two hours???, much occurs after the majority leave. Those delegates chosen have to work through the paperwork and the proposals discussed. It can be much longer than two hours ??? guess who stays to finalize and sanitize what has been accomplished.
Read the precinct chairmen!!!!!
This system is a major waste of man-hours and I totally support a primary vote that allows voters to vote at ANY TIME OF THE DAY OR WEEK before the primary. Be it in the afternoon or the evening ... two hours dis-infranchises too many of us. A primary ... it is in and out, be it a lunch break from a job or whatever. No problem. Anyone who believes that their "resolutions" will survive even on a State level exam is delusional.
Secateur
Posted By: flype @ 01/04/2008 8:55:36 PM
Comment: Caucuses and the use of persuasion _ _ _ in those some two hours, one half hour is usually used to EDUCATE the political neophytes as to what to do. Elect a precinct chair, who often has to be educated at the last moment.
Campaigning also includes smart issue participants to push for their candidate. It creates a bias for the most radical of both parties to succeed in swaying the new caucus goers. Prepared and politicized caucus chairs can and will always move the agenda to their own prejudices
After the mathematics and 15 percentile merry go-rounds one goes on to referendums and proposals to the party. Once again the party elite can influence the newcomer simply by having prepared statements and referendums already printed out. The newbie has no chance at all. That said even with the precinct chairs influence, most of the caucus suggestions never make it through the next steps of the urban political grinder.
As for the ???two hours???, much occurs after the majority leave. Those delegates chosen have to work through the paperwork and the proposals discussed. It can be much longer than two hours ??? guess who stays to finalize and sanitize what has been accomplished.
Read the precinct chairmen!!!!!
This system is a major waste of man-hours and I totally support a primary vote that allows voters to vote at ANY TIME OF THE DAY OR WEEK before the primary. Be it in the afternoon or the evening ... two hours dis-infranchises too many of us. A primary ... it is in and out, be it a lunch break from a job or whatever. No problem. Anyone who believes that their "resolutions" will survive even on a State level exam is delusional.
Secateur