By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas |...It begins in Pig Country - Iowa. It's not quite a primary but Iowans will caucus on Monday, the 15th, to select their preferred 2024 Republican presidential nominee. The initial vote signals the start of what should be a wild primary season.
Republicans have pretty much settled on oft-indicted Donald J. Trump as their candidate against Democrat incumbent Joe Biden, but the show must go on. Democracy demands fair and honest elections. We're not El Salvador! Ha ha (Yes, we are).
The much-ballyhooed Midwest dog & pony show is nothing more than a neighborhood gathering, with a load of Iowa neighborhoods taking part in the daylong vote.
As Time magazine explains it: [ The process is hallowed but arcane. Here’s an attempt to explain.
What is a caucus?
Merriam-Webster, "America’s Most Trusted Dictionary", defines a caucus thus: "A closed meeting of a group of persons belonging to the same political party or faction usually to select candidates or to decide on policy."
David Yepsen, a doyen of Iowa political journalism, boils it down this way: "A caucus – it’s a neighborhood meeting."
And as Tom Beaumont, a reporter for the Associated Press explains, more than 1,600 such meetings will take place on Monday, "one for every precinct in the state".
Either which way, it’s not a primary, the straight-vote contest held by most states, starting in New Hampshire next week. ]
Whatever. Alaska has its weird "rank voting" and Texas its continuing desire to control (read "stifle" into that one) the vote. It's America-At-Play, boys. Time-honored displays of civic duty is what high school teachers are still telling kids, even as we see the entire mess in a slow-motion crumble.
As we noted, Donald Trump is the overwhelming favorite in Iowa, with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki "The Slavery Queen" Haley (shown in photo at left) a distant second and Florida Gov. Ron "Vito" DeSantis in a fading third. Vivek "The Blade" Ramaswamy, the fourth player up to now, has been largely emasculated and will likely drop out of the presidential nomination race after Monday.
Some racial hay was made about mostly white Iowans deciding on MLK Day as the date for their caucus.
Yes, it's a dig, but who cares anymore?
Much of what we thought of America has gone down the drain, as they say in city sewage repair work. And, really, we're not doing anything about it. America is going Full Shithole...and it seems to be okay with you.
Send in the clowns...
-30-
Polls = Noise.
ReplyDeleteDoes this really matter in the whole scheme of things? We all know the loudest republicans want Trump.
DeleteAnd Nikki Haley will fold and accept Vice-presidency.
DeleteHarsh weather headed for Iowa. Trump has the most to lose. And he, of course, has made the comment that low turnout is bad for his campaign. He does well with older voters, but he also is doing well with younger voters. He would be in bigger trouble if all of his support was in the 65 and older crowd. A lot of folks that I talk to, they don’t like to go out after dark when the weather’s like this. So, they’re not going to show up to caucus.
DeleteAbbott now wants to shoot migrants. wow.
ReplyDeleteHe said he would do it, but is afraid that Biden would arrest him for murder. But he said he would do it - shoot them.
DeleteRepublicans will slice and dice SS/Medicare so as to make them unrecognizable by the end of their term. Remember how baby Bush and Billy Tauzin in 2003 forced US taxpayers AND Medicare recipients to give trillions of dollars to the pharmaceutical industry for drugs costing 10X more than the rest of the world. The GOP WILL go after our safety nets, benefits paid through 40 years of work taxes with dollars that on average were worth 6X to 3X more than today!! A 1970 dollar is worth .18 today. Entitlements are events prescribed by law (not giveaways); MEANING US workers have no option but to pay SS/Medicare taxes during their 40+ work life. Taking government inflation into account most US retirees only get about 50% back of what they paid in even if they live to 85. Not many of us live to 85!
ReplyDeleteDemocrats clapping.
ReplyDeleteWe're El Salvador? Love it.
ReplyDeleteEcho that.
DeleteRight-wing "Moms for Liberty" school board member arrested for shoplifting from Target.
ReplyDeleteAbortion rights lost a lot of seats for the Republicans in the last election, and it will be a loss for the Republicans this coming election. It is like the Republicans are making it a point to lose elections. They are doing a good job at it. I agree with letting that issue be between God and the person involved. (or her doctor)
ReplyDeleteDespite Biden being a weak candidate he has a huge factor going for him -- Trump has turned off 57% of the voters, to the point where they would never vote for him. That makes the voter pool for Trump very very small compared to 2020 and 2016. The Independents have had enough of him, only the loyal GOP voters are behind him.
DeleteMy history students have often been puzzled why people in so many places and times have decided to surrender traditional rights and guarantees to unrestrained autocrats. We are seeing in real time Americans--people who have bragged about how much they value our constitutional guarantees of basic rights and freedoms and our government "of the people, by the people, for the people"--choosing instead autocratic rule. Because they want to punish and suppress other people more than they want to protect their own rights and freedoms. Because they refuse to consider that they, too, could be the target of punishment and suppression, if the autocrat (Trump) decides.
ReplyDeleteIowa farmers the new welfare queens.
ReplyDeleteIowa: Last Stand for Ron DeSantis.
ReplyDeleteA lot of Trumpers surround themselves with other Trumpers. They’d be afraid to say they’re voting for someone else, but I think in the ballot box, things will change. Trump will lose by a landslide.
ReplyDeleteAll of the arguments about conservative versus liberal are irrelevant in this election. Donald Trump must not be the next president. He threatens our country in ways that are virtually impossible to believe. I am a long-term conservative Republican who will not vote for him if he is the Republican candidate.
DeleteBig blizzard burying Iowa.
ReplyDelete"A Donald Trump campaign event featuring Kari Lake as a surrogate was also called off."
"Aw shucks" said no one.
Does anyone in the RGV care?
DeleteYeh, they care. They care cause they're Amuricans!
DeleteConservative attorney George Conway said on Wednesday that Donald Trump isn’t heading back to the White House.
ReplyDeleteHe’s going to the big house.
“Trump will spend the rest of his life in jail,” Conway said in a YouTube video posted by The Bulwark, a conservative anti-Trump website. “It may take a while. Justice has already taken a while. He’s going to end up spending the rest of his life in jail.”
Amazing why this state is still picked to be the first to vote and set the trend for other states. By the pictures I see, the people are not a good cross-section of the USA today, more like the 1950's.
ReplyDeleteShould trump lose, or if his numbers are less than expected I would not be surprised if he said the Democrats and the deep state can control weather patterns. There is always someone or something to blame.
ReplyDelete