The Maverick Tribe

The Iowa caucuses are tomorrow.  If the experts are to be believed, then about six percent of the registered voters in a state containing less than one percent of the nation's inhabitants will all but determine the presidential nominations.  I listened to Pat Buchanan this morning on MSNBC tell me that if Hillary Clinton wins Iowa, she'll have the nomination locked up.  And if Romney secures a convincing win in this mainly rural, 90% white state, then no one can stop him, again according to the experts.

On February 5th I will have the opportunity to cast an irrelevant ballot in the California primary.  (Haven't made up my mind yet as to whether I'll be voting in the superfluous Democratic primary or the pointless Republican one.)  Then I get to look forward to a general election season in which neither major party candidate will so much as utter the word "California", much less have us as an audience.  (Rest assured we'll be hearing plenty of snide pronouncements about "the culture of Hollywood" and "San Francisco values".)

The Soviet-style election absurdity doesn't end with the presidential contest.  Consider my three representatives in the U.S. Congress:  Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and, as a San Francisco resident, Nancy Pelosi.  None of these women have faced a serious contender in their most recent respective reelection campaigns.  (I don't think the Republicans even bother trying to get on the ballot against Pelosi anymore.)

But wait, there's more.  Since the Prague Spring of democracy that resulted in a recall of then-governor Gray Davis in 2003, California statewide politics have been a real snore.  Not one seat in the California Legislature has changed party hands in recent memory.  (Could this have something to do with districts for California legislators being drawn by... California legislators?)  Even Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 reelection was contested by a weak and forgettable Democrat.

Then there's San Francisco politics, in which Mayor Gavin Newsom, with a very mixed record and an adulterous relationship with his own campaign manager's wife to his credit, was handed another term in an election that was little more than a formality.

There are lots of things we could do about this:  reform of the primary system, repeal of the electoral college system, term limits, and requiring that legislative districts be drawn by a computer, to name just a few.  Not all of these measures are necessily constructive, but we need to extend the conversation beyond the wonks and political science professors of the world.  Let's get this party started.