As usual the Iowa caucus is receiving an inordinate amount of attention in the form of media coverage, political money, contender visits, pundit prognostications and political rhetoric in general. Unlike most of you who will read this, I have actually participated in the Iowa caucus, but even so, it may be hard to say anything about the subject that hasn’t already been said and said again.
Indeed my participation in the Iowa political process dates back to 1960 and my senior year in high school in Ames, Iowa. Perhaps by virtue of the fact that I had received some local notoriety as the student body and student council president I was asked to run the youth volunteers for Ed Mezvinsky (who was running for state representative from our district). Oh, you say you don’t know Ed Mezvinsky…perhaps you will remember him as a very junior Democratic member of the Watergate Commission pursuing old Tricky Dick et al with great vigor. Ed lost this first campaign. After all he had only graduated from the University of Iowa that year and he did not win his first seat in the Iowa legislature until 1969 and did not go to Washington until 1973. Actually I believe that my political passion was fired by the fact that I sacked groceries at Ed’s father’s supermarket and wanted to solidify my position as much as anything else.
NB. The above mention Mezvinsky also, later in life, in no particular order, spent time in the federal pokey for some not so funny, funny business, married Marjorie Margolies (also an elected member of Congress, and fathered Marc Mezvinsky (mostly notable for having married Chelsea Clinton).
This first brush with the political process was heady stuff even though Ed made a pretty miserable showing as a neophyte Democrat in a solidly Republican district. As evidence of my political versatility though, I was also elected as a Junior Delegate to the State Republican Convention that year. All I remember about the convention was that there were a lot of what seemed to be really old people waving banners and looking generally foolish.
Fast forward several years including four years of college, marriage, three years in the service of Uncle Sam, the birth of our first child, and three years climbing the corporate ladder. I was back in Iowa working in Des Moines and living in the small bedroom community of Ankeny. I had not been politically active since an unsatisfactory stint with the Young Republicans in college. In fact, although I no longer knew my own political leanings, as a twenty something male, I was fairly certain of everything else in life. It was the political season in a presidential year, and at the urging of some of my neighbors, I decided to caucus with the Democrats. This was a little odd, since I was an unabashed Nixon supporter at the time. The problem was that Nixon, being the incumbent, was unopposed which I rightly concluded would make for a very boring caucus. Not so the Dems. There was a veritable profusion of Dems trying to gull the gullible into votes. The choices ran from the ridiculous to the sublime. From Ed Muskie to Shirley Chisolm (the first woman to run), from George McGovern to Wilbur Mills (the first candidate to have bathed in the reflecting pool), and from Hubert Humphrey to George Wallace (the first to have guarded the school house door from less than Aryan purity). Oh, I forgot Walter Fauntroy (first candidate from DC), Ted Kennedy (first to swim the Chappaquidik), and even Mike Gravel (first to….well, you get the point). It was going to be an exciting caucus, and I didn’t want to miss it.
By now you know that the Iowa caucus is quaint, but not unique. There are eleven other states that caucus in some form or another. But Iowa is first. That’s what all of this hullabaloo is all about. Being the first out the gate. Why you say? Well a little time on Ask Jeeves and I got it. Iowans have caucused nine times since 1972 that’s eighteen opportunities for the two major parties to select their candidate, and in twelve instances the winner of the Iowa caucus went on to win their party’s nomination. Seven Repubs and five Dems (the Repubs have always been more predictable, eh). Interestingly, in only five of the general elections did an Iowa selectee actually win, and in three of those instances the nominee that won was an incumbent. So get this, in only two of the last nine elections did a non-incumbent Iowa nominee actually win the presidency. Hmmmm. Perhaps the mass and all other media needs to get a life and look at the facts. 22% of the time the Iowa caucus has really mattered, the rest of the time it’s merely been political theater.
There were 1784 precincts in Iowa and history would suggest that about 45,000 Dems will attend caucuses in a variety of locations, the most common being a neighbors living room. That’s an average of twenty-five or so per caucus site, but with a wide spread in each site given the rural nature of the state. In my instance there were about twenty gathering in a house about two blocks away from our own manse. I knew the rudiments of the process and looked forward to it as a personal challenge to sway others to my point of view and candidate of my choice. The rules are that all present have an opportunity to make a statement for their candidate before the group has to parse itself into preference groups. One in the hallway, one in the kitchen, one near the fireplace, etc. Then the counting of noses. Each preference group must muster at least 15% of the caucus. Those not reaching that threshold are subjected to a period of evangelizing and proselytizing from the other groups. Their choices are to slink away with their choice and dignity in tact or to morph into a supporter of another candidate. You see the opportunity for monkey business and odd outcomes here. First, you have to declare yourself for god and all to see and criticize, and second, you are asked, and most often eventually succumb to the cajoling of others to sacrifice principles for expediency. Ain’t politics grand.
To be honest, I can’t remember who I supported or why, since I fully intended to vote for Tricky Dick, but I’m sure I made some passionate pleadings in some candidates behalf and probably swayed others to align with me against their better judgement. (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t George Wallace or Ted Kennedy…. I hope) . I should note here as a matter of fact that George Herbert Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton both were elected president of these United States after coming third in Iowa; however, no one has ever won finishing worse than third. If I’ve been too subtle, let me lay it out plain and simple. The Iowa caucus is a curiosity in which about 45,000 citizens, good and true, from America’s heartland and 5000 journalists of all stripes make a big ado about something history suggests really doesn’t matter very much.
But I must admit, I’d like to caucus again.
Also NB. There are now somewhat fewer voting precincts (sources vary as to the exact number…go figure). The expected turnout in 2016 is to be something north of 200,000. The Trumpeters are hoping for a bigger number; which they think will assure his win. Same-o, Same-o for Bernie. He needs lots of new demos voting to have a chance against Hillary.. Did you know that you can actually align/vote for no one? To wit: if more than 15% of an individual caucus indicates uncommitted, that choice will be registered. That may be the best choice of all.
