When did Iowa become too white to go first?
Strictly looking at racial percentages and ethnic identifications, the Hawkeye State has always been out of the new “woke” Democrat cultural mainstream. According to the most recent U.S. Census reports (i.e., from 2021), for example, the category of “White Alone” -- meaning not Hispanic or Latino -- is 84.1 percent of Iowa’s population. By contrast, “Black or African-American alone” constitutes a mere 4.3 percent of the humans situated among the millions of acres of corn, soybeans and hog farming operations.
So when Joe Biden’s White House recently announced it was well on its way to changing the order of the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominating primaries and caucuses, it came as no surprise that the ruling elites brought up replacing Iowa as the first-in-the-nation voting state with some more “diverse” location. Every four years, Hawkeyes from both parties are notorious for selecting non-establishment candidates, and Democrat powers-that-be certainly didn’t want to come right out and admit that they demanded a switch – so instead, they blamed African-Americans for the urge to kick Iowa to the back of the line.
Everyone knows Democrats are hook, line and sinker at the mercy of black voters, since for about 90 years the group has given at or around 90 percent of their favor to the party’s candidates. Recent elections suggested that African-Americans’ dedication to liberal, socialism touting Democrat politicians may be wavering, but 2022’s results showed no mass-exodus from the donkey party – at least among black women.
In other words, political change is happening all around us, with higher percentages of Hispanics and Asians voting GOP now than ten years ago. But the black vote hasn’t joined the others in signaling a possible migration to the other side of the proverbial aisle. Therefore, establishment black Democrats are happy to diss Iowa for being “too white”.
In a piece titled “New Democratic primary order recognizes the importance of Black votes”, the always good for a chuckle Democrat cheerleader Donna Brazile wrote at The Grio:
“In a letter sent Dec. 2 to the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, on which I serve, the president wrote: ‘For decades, Black voters, in particular, have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process. We rely on these voters in elections but have not recognized their importance in our nominating calendar. It is time to stop taking these voters for granted, and time to give them a louder and earlier voice in the process.’ …
“The Census Bureau reports that South Carolina is nearly 27 percent Black, Nevada is nearly 11 percent Black and 30 percent Latino, Georgia is 33 percent Black and Michigan is 14 percent Black. Moving these states to the front of the primary calendar will give voters of color a well-deserved seat at the table to winnow down the list of presidential contenders in a multicandidate field.”
All of this and yet Democrats have only nominated one black guy to lead the party into the quadrennial national election. And he wasn’t even the favorite starting out – the party establishment loved the notion of Hillary and Bill Clinton getting another two terms (they’d certainly win reelection, right?). So you’d think, based on Brazile’s argument, that every Democrat nominee would look similar to Michelle and Barack Obama.
But no. Brazile and the balance of the Democrat establishment wouldn’t care less about black voters having a bigger say if Iowa’s and New Hampshire’s Democrats always chose the DC establishment’s favorite when sizing up the hopefuls. But they haven’t.
It’s hard to recall now, but pasty white Iowa got the Obama train rolling in 2008, when Barack semi-stunned the political world by winning the first to vote state. Iowa Democrats chose the former community organizer from the Chicago area over the much more “qualified” -- and much whiter -- Hillary Clinton. And it wasn’t close – Obama took 37.6% to third-place finisher Hillary’s 29.4%. John Edwards – remember him? – managed 29.7%.
Of course, Iowa Democrats made a donkey of themselves in 2020 with their vote tabulation fiasco. When the counting was finally over, semi-nobody Pete Buttigieg miraculously came out on top with Bernie Sanders finishing a close second. Establishment favorite Joe Biden trailed in a distant fourth.
In fact, you’ll probably remember senile Joe was well on his way to an embarrassing early exit from the Democrat race (with two more crushing losses, in New Hampshire and Nevada) until South Carolina’s top black establishment Rep. Jim Clyburn decided to endorse Obama’s veep over the previous winners. Black voters swept Biden back into the thick of it. No wonder he wants to make South Carolina first-in-line now.
Hmmm. Think about it: If Iowa went first again, Iowans might vote independently – again -- like they usually do. Voters there are partial to candidates who personally spend lots of time in the state pressing the flesh with the locals and begging for support. How many boring conversations would senile Joe have to engage in at the Iowa state fair? Who wants to go through all of that again? So yeah, a primary where establishment dollars buy gobs of TV ads makes a lot more sense for the wishy-washy establishment incumbent.
It's not about black vs. white, either. It’s about the establishment versus “outsiders” like Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. You might even throw Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren into that category. The liberal establishment didn’t want ideological purity to push policy, it wanted a candidate who could compete with the GOP nominee and most likely win if everything else was favorable to a challenger like in 2020 with the COVID faux-scare.
Black voters generally back white Democrat establishment candidates. It was true all across the country in 2020.
What Biden and Brazile are essentially saying is there are far too many pale faces in the upper Midwest to provide an accurate snapshot of where Democrat establishment voters really are, and that Iowa’s slight Republican advantage in recent elections means that the state’s liberal kooks, cultural rejects, climate change extremists, abortion-loving single women and garden variety liberals aren’t representative of what African-American establishment voters down south really think.
Demographically speaking, New Hampshire is mostly white, too, though the small state’s residents usually go blue in national elections, as do those of neighboring Maine, Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts, all with higher-than-average white populations. New Hampshire, for instance, is 89.1 percent white, not Hispanic or Latino. Maine is 92.5 percent. Massachusetts is “only” 70.1 percent, but its black population is still below 10 percent. Vermont? 92.2 percent. Lastly, Connecticut comes in at 64.6 percent white, with 12.7 percent black, which is still below the national percentage.
If Brazile were truly interested in elevating states with large percentages of Democrats, regardless of race, wouldn’t she be out front vying for the party’s presidential nominating process to move to the northeast in the opening contests rather than South Carolina?
The Palmetto State isn’t competitive in November, after all. South Carolina Democrats love establishment candidates, but don’t register in general elections. South Carolina does have a black senator – but he’s a Republican, Senator Tim Scott.
In her piece, Brazile conceded switching the order of the primaries wouldn’t make a difference for the upcoming nominating cycle because senile Joe has revealed his intention to run for reelection, and therefore, no other Democrat would dare contest him. It’s true, Biden’s chances of running again greatly improved after the party didn’t lose its electoral shirt in last month’s midterms, but it would take a giant leap of logic to expect no serious competition for Biden in 2024.
Senile Joe’s overall approval rating hasn’t ticked up much despite all the positive post-November election media coverage. He’s still in the low forties, and there are two more years of gaffes and policy screw-ups to try and get beyond. Anyone see his popularity increasing? I don’t.
Democrats are blind but they’re not dumb. Someone – like Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, or (name your Democrat socialist kook here) – will toss their hat into the ring. Biden will likely cruise to victory regardless of which state goes first, but it would be awful embarrassing if Iowa were to keep its first-in-the-nation status and fondness for choosing alternatives and selects someone else over senile Joe.
Joe Biden’s move to shift the order of early voting states ahead of the 2024 Democrat primaries is all about making sure that his strong base of support – black voters – has the first say in whether he will get another chance to run against the Republican nominee. The liberal establishment loves the idea, because it will close out the possibility of an outsider beating Joe. Expect more butt-protecting shenanigans from the powers-that-be on this one.
Joe Biden economy
inflation
Biden cognitive decline
gas prices,
Nancy Pelosi
Biden senile
January 6 Committee
Liz Cheney
Build Back Better
Joe Manchin
RINOs
Marjorie Taylor Green
Kevin McCarthy
Mitch McConnell
2022 elections
Donald Trump
2024 presidential election