Nevada, South Carolina Likely to Hold Democratic Nominating Votes Earlier

The Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted on Saturday to let Nevada’s Caucuses and South Carolina’s Primary for the presidential nomination move to earlier spots on the calendar. This will force would-be presidents to spend more time there and less in Iowa and New Hampshire. This is progress of a sort, but regional primaries offer a better solution.

One of the great flaws in the American party system (as opposed to the political system) is the general absence of a government-in-waiting. So every four years, a party must decide who its leader actually is using a method that is, at best, ludicrous. The Iowa Caucuses start the nonsense off, a predominantly white state in which the largest city, Des Moines, has fewer than 200,000 people. This is followed by ethnically less diverse New Hampshire, where Manchester is the biggest burg about 55% the size of Des Moines. By the time places like California, New York and Texas get a say, many candidates have pulled out of the race due to lack of funds, and the issues important to big states don’t enter into the debate.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee has said that the Nevada Caucuses would come between the Iowa and New Hampshire affairs, with South Carolina coming one week after New Hampshire. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi and West Virginia has also asked for earlier votes, but they were told “no.” The full Democratic National Committee needs approved the new set up, and it could still fail. The real problem is the failure of the committee to opt for regional primaries.

There is no reason for places with the “welcome” and “come again” sign on the same post to decide which candidates are worthy of facing the voters in New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago. The skills needed to woo the self-important voters of Dix Notch, New Hampshire, the “retail” politics they have come to expect, are irrelevant to the modern presidency (for better or worse). As a result, the candidates are evaluated on entirely the wrong criteria.

Far better would be to scrap the patchwork approach and settle on the states of the west voting on the same day, the south a few weeks later or earlier, the north and Midwest at other times. The whole process would require less time, and the candidates would have to demonstrate an ability to reach large numbers with a cogent message – which is what the president tries to do once elected.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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