The caucus experience

Like every other political junkie on the planet, I’ll be watching the coverage of tonight’s Iowa caucuses and goggling at the attempts to read the very weak tea leaves the event represents. Four years ago, I participated in a caucus that was almost equally irrelevant in terms of delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Here was my conclusion then:

If election observers watched a caucus in a so-called emerging democracy, they would decry its failure to observe basic democratic norms. Forget the right to a secret ballot. Forget the right to your unimpeded choice.

What’s remarkable about tonight, of course, is that this idiosyncratic, minimally democratic event will have potentially global significance. The vicious circle of media hype and month after month and million dollars after million dollars of candidate resources provides prima facie evidence that Iowa is important. After all, if it were merely an odd way to select a handful of delegates who will hold no sway at the national convention, no one would pay any attention, would they?

A strange way to pick a presidential candidate, to be sure.

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