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Health & Fitness

Four Caucus Choices for Democrats

As the Jan. 3, 2012 Iowa "first in the nation" precinct caucuses approach, Democrats have four choices.

That the Jan. 3, 2012, Iowa caucuses are next week would be missed in our neighborhood where people seem interested in almost anything other than politics. The party faithful have plans and both major parties are running a consolidated caucus operation with other area precincts at the middle school in town. The Republicans promoted their caucus in the local newspaper with a press release, Democrats did not.

Contrary to what we read in the corporate media, no food is served because of school rules, and most people want to get home as soon as possible once the presidential preference is made. There is little evidence Iowans who live in our corner of rural Johnson County consider the “first in the nation status” to be something of value, and many Democrats would prefer a primary format over the caucuses. The only two candidates with any public evidence of their campaign are Ron Paul and Barack Obama, with a few yards signs scattered around the area.

A person wouldn’t think it, but for Democrats, there are four caucus night choices and the one likely to win is the group “stay at home and let others nominate President Obama for a second term since I don’t have time for politics.” Obama is generally well liked and for most of us who have worked on political campaigns during the last twelve years, we remember what it is like to have a Republican in the White House and want no more of that. And seriously, who wants to spend two hours at a political meeting? After all, this isn’t North Korea where attendance at political meetings is mandatory.

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The second choice for Democrats is to change party registrations and vote in the Republican caucus. Yes, Republicans have a vote, instead of the arcane “preference groups” of the Democrats. This option will attract a few Democrats here, although it does not appear to be enough to make a difference in the Republican presidential preference. If people change party registration, they are more likely to change to no preference. The reason is we are a small community where everyone works with everyone else on community projects, and there is perceived value in saying one is an “independent” in these settings. A de-emphasis on political affiliation seems particularly true among small business operators who rely on everyone to be a potential customer.

The third and fourth caucus choices are for Democrats to caucus for President Obama or for “uncommitted.” Organizing for Obama has remained in continuous operation since it was formed and has an office in the county seat, is flush with cash and has local, paid organizers. Uncommitted has Jeff Cox, a University of Iowa faculty member, and Occupy Wall Street (OWS), although according to a recent Iowa City Press Citizen article, the OWS preference is for “no one.”

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If I were to caucus for the group that has contacted me the most to recruit me, I would caucus for uncommitted. The trouble with caucusing for uncommitted is that experience indicates the group would be unsustainable through a political process that includes actual attendance at county, district and state conventions. Pundits like John Nichols of the Nation point to Iowa’s long history of uncommitted delegates. Cox and others have based the uncommitted campaign on the idea of making a statement rather than organizing a viable political movement. Without a broader organization than what Cox and OWS have mustered, uncommitted is not viable beyond Jan. 3.

I’ll be encouraging neighbors to attend our caucus and hoping to see some of them at the middle school. I also hope readers will consider attending the precinct caucuses where they live.

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