Well folks, we are now just really a matter
of days away from the Iowa caucus.
And I can't tell you how excited I am to not
have to pretend that Iowa is important for
at least another four years.
And here's why I say that, Iowa, the first
State to have their caucus is not representative
of the rest of the country.
I have been saying this for months and it's
something that at this point is actually making
me very angry because I am sick and tired
of hearing about Iowa.
Iowa, 90% white, Iowa, whereas the rest of
the country is only about 60% white.
But let's focus all our time and money and
months and months and months of effort and
energy on this State that is not representative
of the majority of this country.
It is not holding on to a plethora of electoral
college votes that's going to help candidates
if they spend five months there.
Electorally speaking, and I don't mean any
offense to Iowa here, but electorally speaking,
Iowa doesn't really matter and neither does
New Hampshire, which comes second after Iowa.
And yet as a recent column by David Leonhardt
in the New York Times pointed out, the reason
we go with Iowa first is because way, way,
way back in the day, decades and decades upon
decades ago, Iowa had a very lengthy process
on how they awarded their States delegates.
So they had the vote first because it took
them so long to figure out and I guess do
the math, that they had to do it first so
they could get it done by the time it was
convention time, that's how long it took.
New Hampshire didn't have much money, as Leonhardt
points out.
So New Hampshire went second because they
did it on a day when there were lots of town
meetings and everybody was there and everybody
could go ahead and just vote and get it over
with.
So we just did it all in one day.
Times have changed, those are no longer the
facts.
Yet, we're still stuck with Iowa where candidates
do go spend four or five months there, only
leaving to occasionally go over to New Hampshire
and every once in a while traveling down to
South Carolina for a day or two and then they
had right back to Iowa.
That's insane.
You know, on January 6th of this year, I tweeted
out a thread explaining why really anywhere,
but Iowa would be better, but I used my home
state of Florida as a great example.
Florida is a swing state.
Florida is a swing state that has 29 electoral
college votes.
That's a lot.
It's fourth most in the country, right?
Something worth fighting over, to be honest.
Imagine what would happen if instead of spending
four months in Iowa and spending millions
of dollars in Iowa, all that time and money
was spent down here in the state of Florida.
You know, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren and
Bernie Sanders, and Buttigieg, all of them
just making their way all throughout this
state, talking to voters who they wouldn't
otherwise talk to because they wouldn't have
the time.
You would change a lot of minds.
You would experience a lot of new things and
maybe change your policies because of that.
If you don't want to do Florida, fine.
How about Georgia?
Georgia is on the verge of flipping too.
That would be a great state to go spend four
months in for these Democratic candidates,
North Carolina, South Carolina, any of those
places.
Texas at this point would be worth it to spend
a few months and millions of dollars in, instead
of Iowa.
Going to Iowa first is stupid.
It's a waste of time.
It's a waste of energy and it's a waste of
money, and it is an insult to the swing voters
who are on the fence.
But now, because of all the time wasted in
Iowa and New Hampshire, will probably never
get the opportunity to see a presidential
candidate come to their city.
That's disappointing and could cost the candidate
in the general election.
