Iowa Caucuses insignificant in GOP race

By: Jeff Greenfield
Politico.com
June 21, 2011 09:31 PM EDT

Every four years for more than three decades, I have tried to persuade the political community to delegitimize the Iowa caucuses.

I have argued from high principle: The caucuses are blatantly anti-participatory and anti-democratic. By requiring attendance at nighttime gatherings, with no provision for an absentee ballot, this otherwise admirably civic state — with high literacy, high voter turnouts and genuinely competitive congressional districts — disenfranchises every cop, waitress, firefighter, nurse and fast-food worker on the night shift. (A fact Hillary Clinton belatedly noted in 2008.)

I have argued from blatant self-interest: Why should thousands of journalists be compelled to spend midwinter re-enacting the chillier scenes from “Dr. Zhivago” when there are plenty of other reasonably sized, temperate states that beckon?

Joe Klein and I were the first and, as far as I know, the only members of The Committee to Begin the Process in Hawaii. (I am changing the name to “Journalists United” so that we might accept unlimited, anonymous contributions.)

(More here.)