How the Democrats made fools of themselves in Iowa

“Want to cause countrywide confusion and sow doubt in the integrity of democracy?” Well, it turns out there’s an app for that, said Molly Roberts in The Washington Post. It’s the software that effectively sabotaged last week’s Iowa caucuses. All eyes were on the small state as, in keeping with tradition, it held the first contest of the nominating season that will decide the two parties’ presidential candidates. Yet the event turned into a fiasco after “major app problems” prevented Democratic organisers from logging the results of the 1,678 caucuses being held in meeting rooms across the state. It took the best part of a week for the full result to be established. The debacle turned the Democrats into a laughing stock, and prompted many mischievous conspiracy theories. “Mark my words, they are rigging this thing,” remarked the president’s son, Eric.

The Iowa caucuses are “one of the last great anachronisms of American politics”, said Andrew Ferguson in The Atlantic. Carried out over several hours and involving much furious debate and horse-trading among disproportionately white, rural activists, the convoluted meetings are an eccentric way of launching the primary season at the best of times. Ironically, last week’s meltdown happened because the state was trying to modernise its system. Let’s hope the Iowa caucuses are now consigned to oblivion, said Jack Shafer on Politico. Candidates have never liked having to trudge around the wintry state. Nor have reporters, though they’ve felt duty-bound to hype up the significance of this first contest. Only Iowans enjoy the process, “but that’s because it bathes them in flattering attention”.

Last week’s fiasco exemplifies so much about the American situation right now, said Ross Douthat in The New York Times: the “self-sabotage of our institutions”, the disastrous combination of “creaking political systems” and new-fangled technology. The biggest loser from the botched count was Pete Buttigieg, who ultimately won the contest but was deprived of the “headlines and momentum” that a clear-cut victory would have delivered. Sadly for the Democrats, there’s nothing clear-cut about this primary season, said John Podhoretz in the New York Post. They’re hopelessly stuck between Bernie Sanders, who enthuses young progressives; Buttigieg, who enthuses young moderates; Joe Biden, who does well with older and African-American voters; and Michael Bloomberg, who has limitless financial resources. The chaos on the horizon could make the Iowa mess look like a “garden party”.