Posted on 01/16/2024 12:29:21 PM PST by mbrfl
Agreed. And I would argue that caucus lessen the impact of money in the process. IMO, primaries favor the well-funded Establishment candidate to a greater degree than caucuses do. The money bomb media blitz is arguably more effective in a primary than a caucus.
That could be said for a primary just as much as a caucus. Bad weather effects turnout in either case.
Agreed.
Question:
Someone posted a Rush Limbaugh quote the other day saying the Iowa caucuses are just glorified straw polls and do not assign delegates to the convention, and thus do not affect who is the nominee.
If that s true, how do Iowans vote for who is nominee?
Primaries have extended early and absentee voting so there is less need to show up physically at a poll.
The GOP should pay for its own primaries.
When state governments pay for our primaries, government writes the rules.
When we pay for our own primaries, we write the rules.
I don’t think that’s true. I’m pretty sure the caucus results, at least in Iowa, determine the state’s delegate allotment.
%%^!!
I sound just like a Democrat! I guess that makes me "bipartisan".
Open primary elections are a catastrophe for Republicans. There are always a bunch of Democrats and faux-Independents who crossover and "monkey-wrench" vote for the weakest possible Republican candidate.
Closed primary elections, where voters can only vote for candidates of the party in which the voter is registered, are a reasonable approach. That shuts out the "Independents" and is completely justified. If they want a voice in the selection of candidates, they should form their own parties and promote their own candidates.
Everybody gets to vote in the general election. Once. Dead people, imaginary people, non-citizens, and non-residents excluded of course. The Democrats will object to that last bit as "voter suppression". TFB for them.
I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
43% of Iowa Nikki Haley voters said they would vote for Joe Biden if Trump was the GOP nominee.
Vote for Biden?
90% of those clowns are Democrats.
Caucuses are easier in small states. They would be almost impossible in a large, urban state. Too many people working too many shifts.
>>”I sound just like a Democrat!”
No, not really. Caucuses don’t deny any registered party member the right to attend. But they do tend filter out, as you say, the less informed. Voting in a primary takes less effort than voting in a caucus. In the general election, voting should be as convenient as possible without sacrificing security. A part nomination is a different animal. Having a more well-informed subset of the party choosing the nominee is a very republican (small r) concept.
Fair point. Perhaps having both a morning caucus and an evening caucus might provide a solution. Voters could choose the one which fits their schedule better. At the end of the night the two totals would be combined to give the final result.
WA did a caucus once and it was a shit show.
Strange. I wonder why Rush would say that.
Here’s the article:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4210383/posts
Hmmm. Yes, it’s strange. This article from CNN contradicts Rush’s comment. Yes, I know it’s CNN, but this is not an opinion article, but just an explanation of the mechanics of the process.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/10/politics/iowa-caucus-explainer-voting-dg/index.html
Iowa almost never chooses the candidate. What it does is give unknowns exposure and ends weak candidates completely, despite how much money they spend.
Caucuses are party processes and remove interference by opposition parties acting through the legislature.
Right. I agree, CNN seems to be right about this.
I just found a Wikipedia history that says from 1979 to 2015 Iowa also had a Straw Poll several months before the Caucuses. Maybe Rush was confusing the two.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_caucuses
Interesting. Yes, I guess that explains it.
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