Kill The Caucuses They Are An Attack On Democracy

Anybody who would struggle to get to a specific place at an inflexible time, I want them to have options. I understand why people like it, it's folksy and the idea of it is charming, to come together as a community, and we discuss who we want our next president to be. But what it ends up being is an exercise in privilege by hobbyists.  

Emmanuel Smith:  Disabilities advocate on why caucuses should be abolished

I had planned on writing about something else today but in reading around about the current status of the few state nominating caucuses that remain, I came across claims officially made in a couple of caucus states that reflect the unfounded and smug snobbery of Richard Bender, the big brain behind the Iowa caucus and its outsized role in American politics for the past half century, from the same post I took that quote from when presented with what Emmanuel Smith said:

Well, I think they're an exercise by people who really care about who is going to be president of the United States. 

Richard Bender

Really?  They "really care about who is going to be president of the United States?" 

Well, how good are they at that with all of their care for it?  Here is the history of the discernment of those elite Iowa voters in the period under discussion as given, again, sorry, at Wikipedia:

    1972 (January 24): "Uncommitted" (36%), Edmund Muskie (36%), George McGovern (23%), Hubert Humphrey (2%), Eugene McCarthy (1%), Shirley Chisholm (1%), and Henry M. Jackson (1%)
    1976 (January 19): "Uncommitted" (37%), Jimmy Carter (28%), Birch Bayh (13%), Fred R. Harris (10%), Morris Udall (6%), Sargent Shriver (3%), and Henry M. Jackson (1%)
    1980 (January 21): Jimmy Carter (59%) and Ted Kennedy (31%)
    1984 (February 20): Walter Mondale (49%), Gary Hart (17%), George McGovern (10%), Alan Cranston (7%), John Glenn (4%), Reubin Askew (3%), and Jesse Jackson (2%)
    1988 (February 8): Dick Gephardt (31%), Paul Simon (27%), Michael Dukakis (22%), Jesse Jackson (9%), and Bruce Babbitt (6%)
    1992 (February 10): Tom Harkin (76%), "Uncommitted" (12%), Paul Tsongas (4%), Bill Clinton (3%), Bob Kerrey (2%), and Jerry Brown (2%)
    1996 (February 12): Bill Clinton (98%), "Uncommitted" (1%), and Ralph Nader (1%)
    2000 (January 24): Al Gore (63%) and Bill Bradley (37%)
    2004 (January 19): John Kerry (38%), John Edwards (32%), Howard Dean (18%), Dick Gephardt (11%), and Dennis Kucinich (1%)
    2008 (January 3): Barack Obama (38%), John Edwards (30%), Hillary Clinton (29%), Bill Richardson (2%), and Joe Biden (1%)[44]
    2012 (January 3): Barack Obama (98%), and "Uncommitted" (2%)[31]
    2016 (February 1): Hillary Clinton (50%), Bernie Sanders (49%), and Martin O'Malley (1%) [45][46]
    2020 (February 3):[47][48]
        State Delegate Equivalents: Pete Buttigieg (26%), Bernie Sanders (26%), Elizabeth Warren (18%), Joe Biden (16%), Amy Klobuchar (12%), and others (2%)
        Delegates: Pete Buttigieg (14), Bernie Sanders (12), Elizabeth Warren (8), Joe Biden (6), Amy Klobuchar (1), and others (0)
        First Round Popular Vote: Bernie Sanders (25%), Pete Buttigieg (21%), Elizabeth Warren (18%), Joe Biden (15%), Amy Klobuchar (13%), Andrew Yang (5%), Tom Steyer (2%), and others (1%)
        Second Round Popular Vote: Bernie Sanders (27%), Pete Buttigieg (25%), Elizabeth Warren (20%), Joe Biden (14%), Amy Klobuchar (12%), Andrew Yang (1%), uncommitted (1%), and others (0%)

It would seem that that elite group of dedicated hobbyists is far better at discerning WHO WILL NOT BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES than it is at pushing someone on to the other abomination, only somewhat less so because it's a far more democratic primary than an anti-democratic caucus, also small, largely rural, largely white, New Hampshire.   Iowans who show up to caucus would appear to suck at discerning who can win the election. 

The DNC should, as soon as the results of the mid-term are in, declare that no longer will delegates chosen in a caucus be allowed to vote for the nominee during the convention, it should abolish caucuses since the several states that have had such disasters with caucuses such as Iowa and Nevada (last I checked)  don't seem to be willing to give them up yet.  

After the mid-term election there will be no excuse that getting rid of them might hurt Democrats chances of winning lesser offices in Iowa (yeah, right) and there will be just enough time to organize the possibility of exactly that kind of Democratically run by-mail primary of ONLY REGISTERED DEMOCRATS in those states which refuse to give up the anti-democratic atrocity.  It was done all over the country in response to Covid in less time.  And I would suggest that the rule is that only those who registered as Democrats at least six months in advance or less if they turned 18 in that time are eligible to vote in that primary.  That would keep such as the Green Party ratfuckers from conning their way into the process as I saw done when they swamped the Caucus here in 2016.   If any of them voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump I'd be surprised.  They were mostly good for whining about "the fix being in" even though the rules were read out to the entire group by the convener (one of the most honest people I know), posted for anyone to read and rigorously followed.

Kill the caucuses, they are an attack on democracy.  Do it as soon as possible.