Can I say something about Iowa and New Hampshire

[Peacetrain]

These states give you a look at what is happening in that particular state.. sometimes they reflect the nation's mood, and sometimes they reflect how people are feeling in that particular state...

A caveat to that was the Barack Obama campaign in Iowa.. Iowa is older and very Midwestern.. but Iowans went bonkers for Senator Obama because he was one of us.. People in Iowa could identify with then Senator Obama.. he felt like our neighbor next door..

I think the election really begins in SC.. and if SC reflects what is happening in Iowa or NH.. there is our general election candidate..

Just a point of view from Iowa

[George II]

1. Iowa is the state just west of Illinois, where Barack Obama was from.

[Peacetrain]

2. Yep... as I said.. he was our neighbor

and President Obama speaks fluent Midwestern ( ) even if he was born in Hawaii...

[George II]

3. I thought he was from Kenya? No? Quick, tell trump.

[LonePirate]

4. We need to remove the overwhelmingly white and old Iowa and New Hampshire as our first contests.

They are not representative of America or our party. We need to say good-bye to tradition and embrace modern day America.

[Peacetrain]

6. Nope... nothing wrong with Iowa and NH..

The eventual candidate has to win the numbers in the primary caucus season.. Iowa and NH. reflect Iowa and NH and because they are small enough.. they give more exposure to candidates who are starting out.. and are not known on the national stage.. they ( IA or NH )are fine.. or I should say.. we are fine.. Iowan here.. and proud of it

[LonePirate]

7. Nope. IA and NH need to go. Your time in the sun is over. We are no longer a white party or country.

Retail politics can occur in any state, not in two small, white ones.

[Peacetrain]

8. Nothing wrong with being white.. and take it up with the Party if you have issues about Ia and NH

being the first two states in the primary/caucus season..

[marylandblue]

14. People have been complaining about this for decades, but

IA and NH throw a fit anytime someone tries to take away their privilege. At some happy time in the future, may a Democratic President win a landslide but lose IA and NH so that he or she can then do the right thing and demolish state privilege.

[Demsrule86]

22. Seriously come on...what do you suppose would happen if every white person decided to switch

to the GOP...there are still many white Democrats...and your post is divisive. It takes a big tent and all voters must be included...not an either or...I would remind you that we have four Senate seats that we need in New Hampshire and in Iowa and unless we take sentate seats we get no policy and no judges...the bashing of anyone based on race leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[LonePirate]

24. Let's say you're a 30yo black male Dem in Atlanta. What do you have in common with IA and NH voters?

Our party is more closely defined by the people and needs of a 30 yo black male in Atlanta than a 60 yo white male in rural IA or NH. The core of our party is far younger and far more urban than those two old, white rural states. Why, as a party, should we let a fringe and minority element in our party have such an outsized choice on who we nominate?

[Demsrule86]

25. You need both the white guy and the Black guy to win a presidential election and Biden is

carrying the Black vote...in fact. Biden can win.

[LonePirate]

28. I'm not saying he can't win. I'm saying it's time to end the IA and NH first in the nation status.

Last edited Sun Jun 2, 2019, 10:06 AM - Edit history (1)

[Demsrule86]

32. I don't disagree with that...I mean particularly Iowa...they have been voting GOP for a while now

and have blah...Grassley.

[Mopar151]

29. NH has always been cosmopolitan

And there are plenty of non-white ethnicities. Native Americans are in a lot of family trees. There are 50 dialects spoken at Central High in Manchester! A rainbow of refugees, the most careful grocery shoppers ever.
If you work in Southern NH, you need to get along with Haitian& Pinardville French, Brazilian & Fall River Portugese, Schoolteachers English, plus whatever Big Papi speaks! You ain't gotta conjugate verbs, but please, excuse me, thank you is how you roll. Our friends from the Balkans + beyond seem taken a little aback by our desire to get along without conniving every second, but most come around.

[left-of-center2012]

9. "remove the overwhelmingly white and old"

That's discrimination based on race and age.

No thank you.

[LonePirate]

10. It is discriminiatory not to hold the first contests in states that resemble our party.

Old white people are a minority in our party. Young people and POC are the majority in our party. They should be choosing our next nominee, not a tradition whose time has passed. Besides, our party is an urban party and neither IA or NH is anywhere close to being states with major urban centers dominating the state.

[left-of-center2012]

11. One person - one vote n/t

[LonePirate]

12. If you are advocating all states hold their primaries on the same day, then I support that idea.

[Harker]

13. Yep.

Defeats the lemming effect.

[question everything]

17. No. We need rotating regional primaries

In the 90s several secretaries of states, of both parties, were working on this but it never materialized.

[Hortensis]

19. Do we not remember that SC and NV are BOTH early primary

states now? Both will also be in February, primaries every week, 4 states in different regions so that half the coverage of each race will be speculation about how next week's results might vary.

[Demsrule86]

23. serioiusly fucked up...to engage in that sort of thing.

[Mr.Bill]

5. I would like to see all the primaries

held on the same day.

[msongs]

15. easy fix - add california to the same day as iowa and new hampshire, balances out nt

[question everything]

16. Iowa is a caucus state

Unless you can spend a whole cold winter evening - a long one - at a specific place and a specific time, you cannot vote. If you are too old and not feeling well; if you have to be at the hospital, or the police or fire station; have to be out of town or have sick kids at home, you cannot cast your vote.

Worse, you have to stand in front of your neighbors and family members, perhaps even co-workers, to cast your vote.

About Obama, it was suggested that many students from Illinois crossed the border, overwhelmed the secretary of the caucus, and cast their votes. You had many young people who did not have the problem associated with crowding the caucuses that I described above. I know what is happening in a caucus. All of a sudden many show up and sign the registration sheet. Do you think that anyone ever checks those lists? And, either way, results are tabulated that evening. By the time lists are checked - too late.

[Hortensis]

20. IA's Democrat Party has now instituted virtual caucuses

for those who prefer to participate from home.

[Capt. America]

18. Let's keep it 100. Iowa and NH's demographics do not represent America writ large. However, they are

"small" enough and "inexpensive" enough for decent candidates without a lot of money to get a look.

[Hortensis]

21. NV and SC are important new early states, of course.

Next February's primary kick-offs are going to be very different and fascinating for what they say about the very different regions.

NV of course is one of the low-population western states whose electoral college advantage tends to elect Republicans because of the west's relatively libertarian conservative ethic. NV, of course, has large Hispanic (@28%) and fairly substantial indigenous (>5%) populations. Citizens tend conservative but, in part because Repubs like to exclude and kick them in the teeth, haven't come close to voting their power in either party, and both parties are working on them.

Btw, NV's Democratic governor just vetoed their National Popular Vote bill because he felt NV, with only 6 electoral votes, needed to hold onto its advantage, which (I checked) is actually fairly small for a western state due to Las Vegas's large population.

And SC will be first up to bat for the deep south. I've read that southern and western conservatism make for substantially different politics. Southern's from far more religion-based, and of course these days seemingly more Old Testament, or "Jesus-Was-A-Republican Revisionary," than New Testament. Population's something like 28% black.

Whites in both states are in the 60%s.

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Iowa anymore."

[Turin_C3PO]

27. You're right about Southern and Western conservatives being different.

Conservatives in the Mountain West are generally not religious. In fact, Wyoming is a state that ranks near the bottom in church attendance. Yet it’s arguably the most conservative state in the Union.

[Hortensis]

31. In his book warning about grid failure, Ted Koppel

described with appreciation the culture of increased resilience and sustainability in that region. In the very expansive more rural areas especially, of course, but wherever it's not unusual for geography and climate to come together to force people to be prepared to tend to themselves for periods of time.

The climate in the south is challenging and without HVAC and modern medicine would still be something of a killer, also strongly encouraging cultural conservatism. To the irreligious like me, though, conservative religion is as pervasive and heavy on the region as the pea-soup humidity of the summers. We've lived in the mountain states and fit there better if not well.

Conservative culture has its flip side wherever you go, of course. I'm assuming that a lot more of Wyoming's dysfunctionals eventually exit a Greyhound in California than freeze to death under a Wyoming underpass. California leads the nation in so many things in spite of (somehow also in part because?) of its long history as an end destination for the unfortunates conservative states help "out." A very different kind of resilience.

Ex- Californian.

[guillaumeb]

26. 3 tiny, low population states.

Hardly representative of the population as a whole.

[Skittles]

30. I just don't understand why the nominee is decided before voting even gets to the other states