Enough Iowa Already

I’ve ranted about the primaries before, and the only improvement this time around is that the Democrats already have a candidate.

So today, as CNN points out, the Iowa Caucus kicks off the official election season despite the fact that the candidates have been campaigning for 6 months, spending millions of dollars and having 13 debates. Just think how much more money will be spent and how much more of your time wasted before November! One is forced to wonder if that money couldn’t have been better spent by cash-strapped local governments, and all those debates cancelled in favor of letting news crews talk about issues that matter to you and I — say, housing unemployment, the anemic economy, banking reform, schools, the War On Terror, the War On Drugs, the War On Nouns, the aqueducts —  but I digress.

Most “experts” treat Iowa as something important: a barometer of American political thought. It is, in fact, meaningless. A limited number of [almost exclusively white and Protestant] voters who have the luxury of wasting most of their evening picking delegates does not represent national consensus in any meaningful way whatsoever.

The nicest thing I can say about it is that it will be over in the morning. Some pundits will still blather on about it meaning something. Hopefully one or more candidates will pack up his (or her, oh please her) toys and go home.

In closing: this civil forfeiture thing is out of control; the Alabama Gap; and Whiskey Fungus.