No more than 10% of Iowans registered as either Republicans or Democrats are likely to turn out for Thursday’s caucuses. So The American Spectator’s Philip Klein is quite right to call foul:
DES MOINES — Every four years, politicians and the media swarm this small Midwestern state and shower its voters with attention and compliments, but very few people have the courage to admit the simple truth: Iowans are largely apathetic about politics, and they don’t deserve the disproportionate influence they have in choosing the leader of the free world.
If Iowans are to retain their privileged position* at the front end of the Presidential primary and caucus process, would it be too much to actually ask them to, like, vote?
*A position of course that has real policy consequences: if Iowa weren’t the first state to vote every four years we would be much, much less likely to hear politicians make fools of themselves by pledging, in what has become a sacred American political ritual, their fealty to the state’s lucrative but ludicrous ethanol boondoggle.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate, free for a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.
UNLOCK ACCESS Try a month freeAlready a subscriber? Log in