I’ve written a lot over the years about the weird nature of American presidential politics.<\/p>\n
We are a profoundly urban, cosmopolitan, multiracial society.\u00a0 Yet we allow rural, almost exclusively white states whose populations are much more traditionalist than the nation as a whole to vet our candidates.<\/p>\n
Iowa may be the contest that warrants the most skepticism as a barometer for our political system.\u00a0 The Iowa caucuses are hugely labor intensives, forcing participants to take part in lengthy debates and rituals that last hours.<\/p>\n
As a result, only the most zealous — or underemployed — citizens can take part, meaning that usually only about 10% of registered voters managed to do so.<\/p>\n
In Republican politics that means highly organized groups, like evangelicals or Ron Paul’s libertarian supporters, wield influence that is wildly disproportionate to their role in Iowa, let along the country as a whole.<\/p>\n
The overall number of voters who cast ballots in the Iowa caucuses is also miniscule, numbered in the thousands.\u00a0 As any pollster will tell you, when you get sample sizes that small, strange things happen.<\/p>\n
One other dynamic has emerged that deserves scrutiny:\u00a0 Iowa’s outsized role in the political process gives remarkable power to people and institutions that normally wouldn’t register on the national radar screen.<\/p>\n
The Des Moines Register is a good, small-to-mid-size market newspaper.\u00a0 Anywhere else, its endorsements would have local, perhaps regional interest.<\/p>\n
But because of the early caucuses, the Register’s opinions are inflated to national prominence, resonating in news reports coast to coast.<\/p>\n
You also find characters like Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats, who endorsed presidential candidate Rick Santorum last week — and it now appears that he did so after asking for a large sum of money.<\/p>\n
According to Santorum, Vander Plaats argued that the pot of cash — the figure of $1 million has been mentioned — would be used to “promote” the endorsement.<\/p>\n
Some politicians have begun to balk at this tilted dynamic.\u00a0 Jon Huntsman chose not to campaign in the state, which cost him the opportunity to participate in one of the big nationally televised debates.<\/p>\n
There is also growing evidence that the old rationale of the Iowa political ritual — that it would sustain the idea of retail, first-person, one-on-one politics in an increasingly mass-media-internet-driven society — is no longer viable.<\/p>\n
Iowa is flooded with big money, from campaigns, Super PACs, parties and activist groups.\u00a0 The GOP primary has been driven not by door-to-door canvassing and baby-kissing, but by carpet bomb-scale media blitzes.<\/p>\n
The bottom line?\u00a0 It’s a great idea to have one of our early primaries in a rural state.<\/p>\n
But the idea of having three early primaries in small-town tilted parts of the country — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina — needs a kick of the tires.<\/p>\n
Why not lump New York state into the middle of that list?\u00a0 Or California or Illinois?<\/p>\n
And we should also cast a long, wary gaze on any states that engineer their primaries in such a way that average citizens, people with jobs, kids, and a life outside of politics, can’t participate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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