What Did We Learn from the Iowa Caucuses? That Our Election System is the Stuff of Farce

Well, another election year and another Iowa caucus has come and gone. And what did we learn from the Iowa caucuses and the upset victories of Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama? Next to nothing as far the 2008 election goes. In the grander scheme of things, however, we learned one incredibly valuable lesson.

The American electoral process is seriously screwed-up!

If American's contemporary system of choosing its leader did not already exist, it would have to be created for the purposes of satire. If anyone had made a movie about a country that elected its leader in this way it would face great difficulties in the arena of suspension of disbelief even if were presented as outright farce. Sadly, it is far easier to believe that the events that take place in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove are based on reality than it would be to believe that such things as the Iowa caucuses and the primary process could ever actually be based on a true story. Is there any other country in the world where the front-runners in the electoral process are decided by less than half a million people with a demographic base that bears no reality to the country at large? There are some, like pathological gambler Bill Bennett, who believe that the victory of Barack Obama in a state that has more Hispanics than blacks and is over 90% white points to the idea that equality has been achieved. Let's put the numbers into perspective. Over 60% of those taking part in the Iowa caucuses wanted anybody but a black man and that was only in one party anyway, so that argument really has some major holes. Not to mention it is beside the point.