A different, sad kind of Caucus Night
Oh, I've given thought to attending my first Democratic caucus since 1984 and supporting Joe Biden or Amy Klobuchar, both of whom say that they support at least some restrictions on abortion. But neither is willing to back an absolute prohibition on offing the kid after viability; though few people realize this, Roe v. Wade guarantees a right to an abortion all the way up to the moment of birth if the mother's life or "health" is threatened. Her life is never threatened in the case of a prospective late-term abortion since a Caesarian delivery leaves open the possibility of just not killing what in any meaningful sense would have to be called, not a fetus, but a baby at that point and "health" can be interpreted so loosely as to include mild depression or presumably even anxiety. That doesn't bother either Biden or Klobuchar.*
And then, there's the old and dishonest dodge traditional among Catholic Democrats who claim to accept their church's teaching on abortion, but apparently reject that Catholic teaching that they must work to change unjust laws- which, if they truly do accept Catholic (and traditional Christian) teaching on abortion, Roe v. Wade absolutely and without any room for equivocation is. The hypocrisy is not only transparent but undeniable, and Joe Biden is a hypocrite for taking that dishonest position.
The other Democratic candidates are abortion radicals, unequivocally far to the left of where the polls indicate the American people have ever been on the subject. Michael Bloomberg, a "moderate" not contesting Iowa but whom otherwise I would consider a viable option is so far out in left field on abortion that he refuses to support any pro-life Democrat for public office, and criticizes any other Democrat who does!
In other words, Bloomberg is exactly the kind of Democrat who drove me out of the Democratic party when in 1986 Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, our most popular statewide official and the only Democrat with a chance of winning, was denied the nomination for governor despite being an orthodox liberal on every other issue because he was pro-life.
No. As long as the Democrats as a party are so radical on abortion and so minimalist in their interpretation of the First Amendment's guarantee, not of "worship," but of religion, I can never again be a Democrat. I could change my registration back to independent tomorrow if I were to caucus as a Democrat tonight. Not that it isn't tempting; recent polls put Bernie Sanders in the lead, and his nomination or that of Elizabeth Warren would virtually guarantee a second term for Donald Trump, which I would regard as a disaster for America and the equivalent of pulling the plug on the two-party system, which is already on life support given how extreme the two parties have become and how impossible it is to take the Republican party seriously as an alternative to the Democrats given the degree to which it's sold out its principles to an authoritarian demagogue like President Trump.
During previous cycles, I've lived in places where canvasing would be difficult either because I was in a small town or lived in an apartment building. I canvassed plenty of apartment buildings during my politically active youth in Chicago- when I could get in- but both situations present obvious obstacles. Nevertheless, I've marveled in the past that more of an effort wasn't made to canvas for support in advance of the caucuses here in Iowa. I did make telephone calls for Mitt Romney in 2012; oddly, although I was calling from Des Moines, I was calling people in Dubuque. But this time, I've actually seen people going door to door. My minister reports having been called on by volunteers for Joe Biden and twice by supporters of Pete Buttigieg. Identifying your voters and by hook or by crook getting them to the polls (or the caucus site) is bread and butter politics; elections are often won or lost by the relative strength of the candidates' "ground game." I keep reading about how much the "ground game" matters in Iowa, and that makes enormous sense. But as I said, I had never been contacted by a candidate's campaign despite being a regular caucus-goer.
Well, I just was. Former Congressman Joe Walsh's campaign texted me this morning. I'm tempted to go. When Mr. Trump- whose erratic and immature personality, history of corruption, authoritarian leanings, and radical ignorance were well known to me even back then- was nominated in 2016, I left the Republican party vowing not to return unless Trump and all he stood for were decisively repudiated by the party and the unsavory element at the core of his movement expelled. That, I now realize, isn't going to happen; that cancer has metastasized and become the very DNA of the party itself. But I know from past experience that caucus turnout is generally low for the party in control of the White House when the incumbent is running, and despite my distaste for Walsh's record as essentially "Trump Lite" (he's apologized for his history as basically a smarter version of the president and proclaims himself a changed man), I am tempted to show up just to "represent." It's tempting to stand up for the principles of the Republican party I believed in one last time.
But given the enthusiasm of the Trumpsters, this might be an exception to the general rule. They might turn out anyway, and I can't say I have the heart to put up with that much perversity in one room. Besides, given the track record of authoritarian Trumpism- refusing to record votes for any other candidate at the Cleveland convention four years ago even if delegates were required by law to vote for someone else, and actually canceling primaries this year (dubious though the legality of doing so might be in some states) to prevent the remote possibility that Walsh or William Weld (who isn't running in Iowa) might embarrass the president, I have no confidence that my vote would even be counted. The Trump movement, like its candidate, is authoritarian to its core and sees dissent as inherently illegitimate. Like the authoritarian goofs at the other end of the political spectrum on our nation's college campuses, Trumpism holds as a basic tenet the conviction that people have no right to disagree with it and that those who try must be silenced.
I suppose there's a remote possibility that my blood might stir and my feet might find themselves developing a mind of their own and taking me to one caucus site or the other. But my mind will try to keep them under control. One gets spoiled in Iowa. I, who grew up in Chicago, where the reins of political power rested absolutely in the hands of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, found the kind of democracy Iowa offers intoxicating. I was elected as a delegate to the State Democratic Convention back in 1984, and as I sat there on the floor of Veterans' Auditorium during the convention I found it incredible that I was there. It could never have happened back home.
After Tom Miller's defeat, when I realized that there was no longer a place for me in the Democratic party and that my conscience demanded that I work through a party which shared my belief in the sanctity of human life, I served as a delegate to the Republican State Convention as well and was elected twice to the Polk County Republican Central Committee. I worked hard for the Republican ticket in 2012 and 2014 after doing a bit less in previous cycles. Donald Trump, of course, ended that.
No, it's time for me to accept my new political reality. I cannot in conscience identify with either of our two extreme and exclusionary political parties. I had hoped that a third party would emerge in 2020, but the necessity of defeating Donald Trump proved a decisive deterrent to anything that might split the anti-Trump vote the way it was split in 2016 and enabling our unfit president to win a second term through a second electoral fluke. Barring a miracle, I hold out no hope for either of the two parties to come to their senses any time soon, so hopefully, 2024 will see the birth of a centrist third party to displace one or the other the way the Republicans displaced the Whigs in 1860 or else force our nation to develop a three-party system in which the responsible and reasonable among us might also have a home.
But until then, I guess I'm going to have to get used to being homeless politically. There are worse things. After all, an independent doesn't have to worry about the Daleys or the Trumps of this world telling him or her what they can think and who they can vote for.
*Presumably Biden and Klobuchar would be OK with states restricting abortion in the second and third trimesters, as Roe permits them to do. But neither recognizes the gaping loophole in Roe which fails to define "health" in such a way as to prevent it from being used as a way in which any woman who wants a late-term abortion and can get a doctor to certify that the anxiety or mild depression resulting from not getting one would impair her "health" could bypass literally any state restrictions under Roe.
Somehow, in the first draft of this post, I assumed that Klobuchar and Biden saw that problem, at least. But it seems that they don't. Frankly, I should have known better; in fact, I did know better. I guess I let my optimism and my eagerness to seize on any excuse to potentially support any of the Democrats to get the better of me.
Assuming it's not Sanders or Warren, I'll vote for the Democratic nominee in November. But no way can I caucus for one of them tonight. No, I'll be going down to the Royal Mile instead, and watch the returns over dinner and a pint or two.
ADDENDUM: Looks like the results also decided to give Caucus Night a miss this year. Given the dysfunctional nature of our politics these days, it seems only fitting.
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