Iowa Caucus results show Democracy in action

by Gordon Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, January 11, 2008

And so it begins! Another presidential election cycle has commenced with the Iowa caucuses and now that the dust has settled, and the news crews have moved on to New Hampshire, perhaps it would be wise to analyze what took place last Thursday.

While the many pundits, pollsters and amateur prognosticators made their predictions and prophecies, the actual voters made the impact.

Many observations came to me as I watched the coverage and read the analyses throughout Thursday and Friday.

First of all, it was noteworthy to me that it was taken for granted that there were no car bombs or assassination attempts during the voting. There were no reports of threatening behavior from extremist groups and no claims of disenfranchised voters. The fact that this was so ‘un-noteworthy’ to the media proves my point that for all our differences and diversities, we remain one of the most civilized societies, and the rule of law and the common Judeo-Christian ethos has once again served us well. It does not require a very ambitious look at some other cultures to realize what a great blessing it is to live here in this nation.

The next item of interest to me was the victory of former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee. Exit polls seem to indicate that Mr. Huckabee owes his overwhelming victory to the efforts of the Evangelical Christian voters of Iowa. According to some reports, as many as 60% of the Republican Caucus-goers claimed to be born-again or Evangelical Christians. Huckabee’s clever use of his ‘Baptist Pastor’ persona and his ‘not-so-subtle’ Christmas-Card message resonated with many voters who were looking for a reason to believe the Republicans still valued the ‘Values Voter’.

This rising tide of the resurgent Christian Conservative voting block surprised many who had hoped (and some who feared) the extreme-right-wing base of the Republican party would follow in lock-step with some of their noisier leaders, such as Dr. James Dobson, who had earlier flirted with the idea of supporting a third party candidate. While many may still rely upon others to read the signs and guide them step-by-step through each decision, I believe the current generation of voters is more likely to read the signs and make decisions for themselves. Therefore I believe this election could see the Evangelical vote as well the African-American vote become less of a monolith and more of a multi-layered and varied group of individuals.

This new ‘Information Age’ has spawned a new type of voter who will see herself and himself just as capable of reading between the promises as their former leaders. The ambitious voter will no longer wait for a talking head on TV or a mantled leader to pre-digest the nutrients for them, instead, she or he will go directly to the candidate’s website or visit a variety of blogs and get the juicy morsels firsthand.

I was also struck by the poor showing of the ‘Inevitable Nominee’, namely Mrs. Clinton. For all the hype and confidence she carried with her, one has to be surprised when she limps away with a third-place showing. The spinning began even before the final results came in with Clinton spokespersons claiming that Iowa was not really that important and New Hampshire is really what matters. Ok, and where can I buy that bridge?

What could or should be taken from this result? Well, first of all, we should recognize that nothing is certain or inevitable. All things are subject to surprise, and fate is as fickle in politics as it is in nature. Secondly, we should note that the Liberal voter might be maturing as much as the right-wing voter. Perhaps they too, resist the categorization and stereotyping that goes on in most campaigns. The designation of individuals into certain focus groups has been exposed and the tendency of a candidate trying to be ‘all things to all people’ may have run its course. In other words, the day may have arrived when voters become known as individual voters and the candidates would do well to see them as such. Rather than talking down to groups or taking certain blocks of voters for granted, the successful candidate will see the value in being true to themselves and letting the voters accept them or reject them for who they really are, rather than trying to ‘fool all of the people all of the time’.