Anachronisms?


This article makes the point the Democratic candidates in Iowa, like the population of Iowa and the Iowa Caucus process, are unrepresentative of the US: the country’s demographics show growing numbers of Hispanic voters and the average voter is significantly younger than 70. Iowa’s manual caucus procedure also seems antiquated.

What interests me here is the recognition of a mismatch, as if the writer assumes a properly functioning electoral system would field candidates more closely resembling the electorate, that the process for choosing a Democratic candidate would use something approaching currently available state-of-the-art technology rather than relying on groups of people clustering in libraries and schools. This is an electoral process which functions on one-liners, tweeted or delivered in soundbites by late night television comedians. Why would the demographics of candidates match the US electorate any better than the rhetoric of candidates matches the urgency of issues facing the US?

Bookmark the permalink.