Yes, the causes in Iowa are just a day away, and that doesn’t really seem to me like it’s the best way we can start the new year. (The title here was sarcasm.)
No offense to the good folks in Iowa who are reading this but — you people are having far too much influence on national/world politics this year. I have lived most of my life in small town, nearly rural, and small city surroundings. I spent my childhood in a small town in southeastern Nebraska. I currently live in a small city in Missouri.
All that is to point out what others already have said about the matter: Iowa is too rural and unrepresentative of our country’s major population areas to be given such weight in the presidential caucuses/primaries. I assume most Iowans are too subjective to admit that, but it makes sense. Like it or not, America is no longer a bucolic rural society. Most people live in “big cities,” or very near them. Those who do face numerous “big city” and 21st century issues that the good folks in most of Iowa avoid.
Good for them, I say. I prefer the small town, small city lifestyle to anything on the coasts near the huge metropolitan areas. But we need to face the fact that America selects her presidents to serve all the people, not just the rural/small town few.
Ah, well, what do I know? I’m just a guy who reads the papers — and lives in a rural state himself!
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