About time, Iowa isn’t remotely representative of the party or even the country. Democrats make South Carolina first presidential primary voting state — NBC News
A fair point. Why 50 states get a say on a party's nominee when there are 10-15 (at most) states that matter in a general election, even with a very broad definition of "mattering," is tough to explain. Of course, every aspect of our system is tough to explain if you dig deep into any of it (i.e., why we have a system that only cares about residents of a few states).
From the article: “South Carolina will now kick things off for Democrats, with Michigan — and potentially Georgia — joining the early states in the biggest shakeup of the presidential primary in years, while Nevada will go second.” Nevada is in that mix too. think they mostly got it right.
While South Carolina is almost irrelevant in the general election, African-American voters in the South are probably the most important single demographic constituency in determining the Democratic presidential nominee. See Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
It definitely helped him in 2000. It probably will not make any difference in 2024 since he will empty the field if he decides to run for reelection.
South Carolina does seem like an improvement over Iowa, but still I favor having all states do at once, like the presidential election. I think it’s best if voting is done without regards to previous votes cast.
The problem with that, and the reason they start with small states, is because it would all but guarantee the pre-primary favorite with the money would win. Small states allow retail politics to let the voters actually see these folks and give a boost to names the rest of the country might not know well.
Maybe this is right, but then at best we have a trade off. Group decisions seem to converge on better results when the individuals don’t let their judgement be influenced by those of the other individuals. Then the group decisions approach averages of the whole, rather than amplifications of minority views. Choosing in groups and trying to determine “the will of the propels” is just a tough task, so I’m sure my preference -and all other options- would come with their own downsides.
The orange man was a jerk that many were sick of after 4 years. Now Biden has had 4 years in the limelight, we will see if so many are still eager to follow him.
