Jesus warned us “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” So maybe Iowans shouldn’t be concerned if we get shoved out of our coveted first-in-the-nation caucus status.
National Democratic leaders are currently drafting a resolution that could set new criteria for early participation in primary voting in presidential elections. There had been grumblings for years about Iowa getting first in line when other states like Illinois or Georgia might be more representative of America’s population. After all, Iowa is about 90 percent white, largely rural and we tend to be older than the US average. New Hampshire has been horning in on Iowa’s place in line as is Nevada and South Carolina. After the train wreck of the 2020 Democratic Iowa caucuses when technical and administrative errors collided and it came time for the state to announce the winners, we had nothing to report. It was a huge embarrassment. It’s no wonder they don’t trust us anymore.
How did Iowa get to be first in the first place? After the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that turned into a riot, it was decided that the nominating schedule ought to be spread across all the states. And, curiously, because its nominating process was one of the most complicated and required the most time, starting in 1972, Iowa got to go first.
Okay, if it isn’t fair, how come Iowa continues to be first in the nation? There are some good reasons for this. First of all, Iowans now have the most practice at being interviewed. When national news organizations descend on the state every four years, we are ready for them. We have clear, well-articulated answers to their questions. We are well informed and we look comfortable on camera. We know the drill.
Plus, Iowa is a relatively small state, smack in the middle of the country so politicians and news teams don’t have so far to travel. Our population is small and accessible. It’s cheap to advertise in Iowa. And, maybe most importantly, it was less trouble to let Iowa keep its place in line than it would have been to change the rules.
But being pushy is against Iowans’ nature. At a four-way intersection, Iowans can spend minutes each motioning the other driver to go ahead of them. “You go first.” “No, you go first.” And so on. We don’t need to go first. It’s not polite.
Who can forget the diplomatically awkward event at the 2017 NATO summit in which President Trump, in a demonstration of his “America First” policy, shoved Dusko Markovic, prime minister of Montenegro out of the way so he could be in the front row? Montenegro, a small Baltic country with a population the size of Baltimore had recently been awarded membership into NATO in courageous defiance of Russia. Trump didn’t acknowledge the prime minister or say, “Excuse me.” He just grabbed him by the right shoulder and shoved him out of the way like an empty cardboard box. Markovic later took Trump aside and thanked him warmly for supporting Montenegro’s NATO membership. “I want to tell you,” he said to a group of journalists, regarding the shove, “that it is natural for the president of the United States to be in the first row.”
It is natural for polar bears to eat baby penguins. But it’s not very polite.