Primary Lessons
In Canada, U.S. politics has traditionally been cherished for its entertainment value. Every four years, in November, we put on our solemn faces and earnestly discuss who should lead the world’s only superpower. But during the electoral process we expect to be amused. After all, our own political scene is no barrel of laughs.
A front seat at the American spectacle is one advantage of being a Canadian. Whether we love or hate the United States, we appreciate the grotesque frenzy that accompanies its elections. The more its politicians lie and reverse their opinions, the more we enjoy them. Who among us has failed to be amused at the attempts of several candidates to enlist Jesus Christ as a supporter?
But until this year the primaries were making the pre-election period relatively dull. Primaries knocked off so many candidates that hardly anyone survived long enough to put life into the nominating conventions. This time, however, creative stage management made the campaign 10 months longer than it was, treating everyone to many extra months of pre-primary electioneering.
This means we have already savoured a rich array of controversies, scandals and delightful flip-flops. Of the candidates now running in Iowa (eight “serious” Democrats and seven Republicans), Mitt Romney has become my favourite. He governed Massachusetts as a liberal Republican because Massachusetts is liberal, and he’s become a conservative because Iowa is conservative. Watching him handle this contradiction is an education in carefully scripted and deeply felt hypocrisy. We haven’t seen such a display of political sincerity since Bill Clinton wept at his last funeral.
In Iowa more or less intelligent politicians try desperately to bring themselves down to what they imagine is the intellectual level of Iowa — or the 10% or 12% of eligible Iowans who will vote in the caucuses on Thursday, giving the world its first hint of where the election might go.
The poor American reporters (unlike us, and most U.S. voters) must take the words of the candidates seriously. That’s not easy. Issues of experience and change define the Democratic race, according to the Washington Post, and also according to the candidates. “Do you believe in change?” asks Barack Obama. John Edwards answers “Yes” but insists that he believes in it more than Obama does — he wants radical change. It’s hard to figure out what Obama might change, if anything, and so far Edwards has looked like nothing but the rich damage-claims lawyer he is.
Hillary Clinton, with husband at her side, has settled on a theme for this phase of the campaign — “It’s Time to Pick a President,” a slogan that surely breaks the record for banality. She claims White House experience, but The New York Times has noted that when her husband was president she didn’t hold security clearance, attend National Security Council meetings, receive the daily intelligence briefing or make her views known on crises in Somalia, Haiti or Rwanda. She did, however, make such a mess of health care that she at least knows how not to fix it.
To a Canadian it’s obvious that the U.S. electoral process has become a part of the American economy, redistributing vast sums of money from optimistic donors to the service industries, like companies renting aircraft. TV-stations owners, running the commercials of candidates, are having their richest season ever. Armies of press agents, spin doctors and $20,000-a-month part-time consultants are prospering. For pollsters Iowa has been heaven. They run poll after poll, raising or dashing the hopes of candidates — and there have been no pesky vote-counts to prove them wrong. The Long Campaign must make all of these people feel as shopkeepers would feel if we decided to have Christmas two or three times a year.
For foreigners like us the campaign has been exceptionally educational. Candidates, relentlessly hunting down the last votes, have taught us about Iowa geography. On Thursday Obama campaigned in Coralville, Muscatine and a town named Clinton while his wife, Michelle spoke in Pottawattamie County, Mitt Romney worked the crowd at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars and Fred Thompson showed the flag at the Smokey Row Coffee House in Pella and toured downtown (that’s what it said on his schedule) Oskaloosa.
Only the ungrateful will complain that it hasn’t been entertaining so far. And now there’s an outside chance that the primaries won’t produce an unbeatable candidate in either party, meaning we could watch the first exciting conventions in generations. But that’s probably too much to hope for.
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive
The real primary lesson is that our goofy schedule lets candidates try to gain a momentum by saturating TV with ad crap in small markets first—aka Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina.
We ought to be doing national primaries on a single day, or, at worst, five days, with 10 states a day.
We are trusting a few rural folks to start our candidates’ snowballs rolling. In the good ole days before TV, this may have been okay. Now it isn’t.
This method simply allows the large money to roll in and pollute the cable and airwaves in a concentrated space. Us citizens ought to spread that out so the would-be money-influencers have to spend the moon and still be rather diluted. We’re the stooges for letting this happen stupidly again and again, BUT, it is indeed hard to get it changed.
Daniel David: Please read Ralph Nader’s piece on today’s posts and my comment.
Maybe there IS hope for change, but it will take those with more voice than us to get it started.
Don’t worry,when the dust has settled, we will have been well-entertained by yet another Bush triumph.
If a candidate cannot be nominated who can beat a chimp, then I believe it’s time to begin teaching devolution in the schools.
The 2008 election is shaping up to be yet another contest between two unintelligent,unprincipled,hypocritical and power hungry elitists.
F.D.R was the last one to display any qualities of effective policy whose govt.seemed to be working for all Americans.
ron paul is electable.
No, nayoibi, Ron Paul will not be elected.
These are the lessons:
1. Polling data shows the public is not informed about the candidates proposals and does not base their vote on the issue positions.
2. Media research shows the television stations do not cover the candidates, even though they are using public property, the airwaves which are owned by the American people (most people don’t know this).
3. He who has the gold (Hillary, Obama, and Romney) gets all the press coverage, even though the public favors the positions of Edwards and Kucinich, again according to polls.
I’m so glad that the Canadians are being entertained. Remember the old saying “When America sneezes, Canada gets a cold”. And besides, they have Harper, another Bush poodle. I hate to say this, but you canucks have just as much of a stake in this mess as we do! And keep that antihistamine handy.
there isnt anybody running on the third ticket that has any chance..the democrats don’t need your vote and the republicans need to be shook from the inside - out.i still say,paul is viable and electable.the only thing that stands in his way,is the nay-sayers.
formernader,only if one registers as republican,can they vote for ron paul in the primary. would be a good joke(on them),from a formernaderraider.
Yes, the mass media looks at elections as the kind of money maker that retail stores enjoy at christmas.
So, what is the big reform so many “progressives” come up with?
Public financing of elections!!
As in, let’s use public money so that politicians can spew their lies on public airwaves, but the media corporations profit! Yeah, no downside there. Plus, whenever you set up a fund that corporations can feed at, you never get rid of it! And greedy scum take advantage of it.
The airwaves are public property, people. Providing time for candidates to give their views should be required for the public good. Attack commercials are worthless. I don’t want to pay for them.
I just submitted my online registration as a Republican after being a Democrat for 40 years….just so I can vote for Ron Paul.
I found out tonight that he has been excluded from the New Hampshire Republican Presidential Debate on January 6th by Fox News. And he is polling higher in New Hampshire than other candidates who have been included. Not to mention that when Fox had a prior debate Ron Paul won their text message poll after the debate. Poor Sean Hannity was downright apoplectic over it! Ron Paul has a huge grass roots following that crosses over all party lines and he raised $6.4 million in one day with small donations, yet this apparently means nothing to Fox. Well, it should mean something to the American people.
Although I am a very strong supporter of a single payer, not for profit health care system, I am far more concerned with the way the Democrats have allowed Bush to rape the constitution with the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Homegrown Terrorism Act (Jane Harman - Democrat!!), and going to war against Iraq based on lies.
Ron Paul gave a great speech in New Hampshire about a week ago on “Executive Powers”. You won’t hear any other candidate, other than Dennis Kucinich, saying what Ron Paul says in this speech:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7493899900883927358&loc=interstitialskip
He should not be excluded from the debate on January 6th by Fox. It is un-American and against our electoral democracy for Fox News to be allowed to exclude him.
If you like you can send an email to protest this action by Fox here:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/index.html
(Scroll down to the little box in the left corner to post your “tip” to their newsroom)
And here is where you can email the FCC Commissioners:
Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov
…and make sure to comment how NewsCorp is “acting against the public interest.”
Regardless of who we may support for POTUS, it is totally unacceptable to allow Fox to decide which candidates the American people can hear in a debate.
As to me voting for Ron Paul in the primary, I look at it this way: I’m from California and the only Democrat I care for, Dennis Kucinich, won’t have a prayer of winning there. But Ron Paul might on the Republican side. I’d rather see Ron Paul win in California than Mike “New World Order” Huckabee:
http://www.nationalexpositor.com/News/840.html
I grew up in College Park, Maryland (17 years).
I have lived in Iowa for 14 years.
The description of Iowans and the Iowa towns in this column and its comments are outrageous.
First, Iowa isn’t conservative. It is independent. You’ll find pockets of both conservativism and liberalism all over the state. Iowans come from all over the world. Not all Iowans grew up and stayed on the farm.
Second, we’re not all hayseeds. The people here have good hearts and some are even intelligent. The people here represent the kinds of people we would “like the rest of America to be” and hence the vote in Iowa is a good indication of who can best get us to the best place for the rest of the country. If New York or Los Angeles were to be “first in the nation”, we’d get whatever those pampered, pretentious upper class twits in those cities think is best for the world. They’re just mad that they don’t control all the pieces of the world.
Third, Iowa is small enough that individuals have a chance of asking candidates good, thoughtful questions and getting answers. I have met Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Barack Obama (and Howard Dean in 2004), the three candidates for whom I may vote.
Fourth, Iowa is more diverse than you think. We have a lot of white people but we also have black, brown and yellow people as well. We sponsor a Brown/Black debate that allows people of color to ask questions that won’t be asked the rest of the year by the final candidates. Besides, I don’t want a gang member from to be the person who decides what is best for the poor.
Finally, at our caucuses, we meet with our neighbors, face-to-face, and have an opportunity to get them to change their vote after they’ve voted once.
I’m caucusing for Edwards on Thursday. Obama is my second choice. If we’re lucky, Clinton will lose in Iowa and New Hampshire.
By the way, Tim Russert, whom I do not like, nailed Ron Paul on his hypocrisy in obtaining earmarks even though he wants less government. You can’t have both. Until that point in the interview, I found Paul’s ideas very attractive. But a man’s actions speak louder than his words and Paul, in that one instant, shows he isn’t serious about what he preaches.
edsall
I think you forgot to mention that your state of Iowa recieve one of the highest, if not the highest amounts of farm subsidies in the nation. Billions of dollars flow to your state from all over the nation including NY and CA. Maybe you could address the environmental consequences of industrialized agriculture has and how better to spend the billions of dollars provided to your state.
btw, gang members are poor people, it is through poverty and social inequality that people don’t just become veterinarians, teachers, small farmers…etc.
If Ron Paul wants to change things in America, he start with support for the impeachment of George Bush!
Abbywood,
Are you aware that your support for single payer and Dennis Kucinich’s positions, and your support for ron Paul, is utterly contradictory?
Ron Paul is, first and foremost, a proponent of an even more extreme form of unfettered, dog-eat-dog capitalist society than the one that has brought us to to this dismal era.
Even his antiwar, anti-interventionist views are largely based on a simple-minded isolationism rather than an understanding of the vital role imperialism has in support of capitalism.
edsall,
Excuse my naiive question here, but, can you explain how these caucuses work? Are they open to any registered Democrat? What kind of setting are they in - a school auditorium or such?
Are they mostly just groups of DLC-type party loyalistys - serving sirty looks to any Kucinich supporter?
Wouldn’t a plain old primary election be more democratic?
“For foreigners like us …
Only the ungrateful will complain that it hasn’t been entertaining so far. And now there’s an outside chance that the primaries won’t produce an unbeatable candidate in either party, meaning we could watch the first exciting conventions in generations.”
Enjoy it all. As a home-grown, I’d just as soon have a one-year limit and a ‘fair’ random-Lottery — for any-Citzen still-Literate and capable of tying-shoes or wriggling into a bra…[I’m confident we’d all be much better-off].
at least according to another of today’s CD stories: An Endorsement from the Wilderness,
Ron Paul it seems is also endorsed by the Minutemen, so ya’lls in good company there.
Ron Paul has become the latest fad by folks disperate for a real candidate. He IS NOT, let me repeat, IS NOT, a progressive. He has a good position on the war. Great! However, he is opposed to natl. health care, social security, in fact, any real role of the public sector in aiding working and poor folks. He is NOT pro-labor, opposes union organization and would not support the most important piece of legislation put forward by the people’s movement, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would give unions/workers the right to organize without corporate intimidation.
Movements have allies of many types. Ron Paul is temporary, good on the war issue, and good for that. He is NOT FDR!
Treefrog says:
>I think you forgot to mention that your state of Iowa >recieve one of the highest, if not the highest amounts of >farm subsidies in the nation.
I didn’t know that was relative to this discussion but dince you have brought it in to smear Iowa, I will discuss it. Those subsidies go to farmers all across the U.S., not just Iowa. They go to the Midwest, California, dairy farmers in upstate New York to mention a few. THere are subsidies that go to beet farmers in Minnesota to lower the price of beet sugar so that their product will be more attractive than cane sugar from the Carribean. It is policians in D.C. that ask for these subsidies for the agribusinesses. Iowa’s senator, Charles Grassley, is actually trying to stop subsidies.
>address the environmental consequences of industrialized >agriculture has and how better to spend the billions of >dollars provided to your state.
Many Iowans, including myself and some friends, HATE hog confinement facilities and have formed lobbying groups to prevent them from spreading. It is the state legislature that is condoning this, not us. If you coasties even knew how your chickens, eggs and pigs are raised…
PJD asks:
******************
Excuse my naiive question here, but, can you explain how these caucuses work? Are they open to any registered Democrat? What kind of setting are they in - a school auditorium or such?
Are they mostly just groups of DLC-type party loyalistys - serving sirty looks to any Kucinich supporter?
Wouldn’t a plain old primary election be more democratic?
******************
The caucuses are open to anyone, Republicans, Democrats and independents. However, you must be registered as a Republican or an Democrat to participate. That means Independents must choose a party for at least one day to participate. People can register at the caucus and can even change party affiliation the evening of the event. Before you cry foul, realize that the law of averages prevents a large number of people from one party from having an impact on the vote of the other party’s caucus by registering without seriously changing the results of their own party by being absent from their caucus.
IN small rural townships, the caucus is likely to be at a church or at someone’s house. In cities, people usually go to a school, a church, a library, etc., in their normal voting precinct and caucus.
Once the Democratic caucus begins, we divide into “preference groups”. THen “viability” is determined. In my precint, for instance, my candidate will need 15% of the people registered at the caucus to be viable. So, if 100 people showed up, he will need 15 people to “stand for him” in his corner of the room.
AFter viablility is determined, any candidates who are not viable are not eligible for “delegates”. They must choose another candidate or become “undecided” (yes, Virgina, you CAN vote for none of the above). The game in the end for each candidate is to get as many delegates as possible. The number of delegates given to a candidate is then done by simple proportionaliity. If the candidate has 25% of the people in the room after the second count, they get 25% of the delegates available for that precinct. If there are 12 delegates available, he gets 3 delegates. These delegates go to county caucuses in March, then district caucuses and then the state caucus in the summer. From the state caucus, delegates are elected to go to the national convention.
The Republican caucus is a silent vote in the room and every vote counts. There is no viability test.
As for the types of people caucusing, it is no different than a primary. Only the truly civic-minded ever show up. And the people who DO show up are your neighbors who live in your precinct. So, there is a social stake in how you vote and how you can influence others. You would be proud of the Kucinich supporters. They went to their part of the room, they were not viable and rather than go with Edwards as Dennis asked, they walked out of the caucus in protest.
If there is one down side to the caucus, it is the peer pressure. In 2004, in my caucus, many people went to the Kerry corner because they had the biggest group and hence would be “the winners” and there are some shallow people who want to be associated with “the winner”, lest their neighbors think they are stupid losers. I was a proud Dean supporter and stayed that way.
edsall
This discussion is not about trashing Iowa. If anything it is to broaden the discussion that might include the rest of the country and all of it’s inhabitants.
We do know how our bacon is produced and that is why I brought up that your state recieves almost a billion dollars more than any other state to support these practices. Just something to consider.