Iowa Caucus Causes Confusion

Jonathan Adams

Iowa Caucus Causes Confusion

Are they really that important?

Like many of us, Kenyon Farrow wants to know what his vote is really worth.

So, if his election may be fraught with such tension, hope, ambivalence or disillusionment for Black people in America, why should I vote? Why should any Black person in America vote?

I don’t honestly know the answer to that question. I don’t know why I do vote most of the time. But I know that there isn’t an easy answer to how the descendants of chattel slaves should position themselves trapped as we are in this strange paradigm. But as much as I feel, in the deepest core of my being, somewhat anxious for Obama and wanting to see him do well, but I am under no delusion that his Presidency (nor Clinton nor Edwards nor any of ‘em) will save any of us.

And so I will watch the Iowa Caucus tonight, and all the other election brouhaha over this year, with a good deal of hopefulness and anxiety, highly skeptical that freedom can ever be found in a ballot box, but knowing full well that budgets, laws, and public policy can shrivel or spread misery.

What do you think about the Iowa Caucus today? Are we looking to these results as indicators for November? Or, are we too cynical to believe that votes in Iowa could be the beginning of something different?

Posted at 8:40 AM, Jan 03, 2008 in Elections | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

I believe that this is the change we have waited for. I believe this is what slaves, Civil Rights proponents, Dr. King, and countless others lived and died for. The caucus is only the begining. If you believe Sen. Obama can be a good president (and I think we all know he can be), then for the love of all that has been sacrificed and fought for- VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK I have to admit that I allowed myself to get caught up in the Obama hype tonight. Hey, how many times will a Black man pull this type of vote from a majority white state? How many times will there be at least the illusion that a person of color, nay a Black man, could possibly be the President? Give a sister me a moment, will ya....

....OK it's gone. I'm no Obama fan (Check out his votes on immigration issues. Check out what he has said about the war.) Go back two years and lay his words next to Hilary and it's the same centrist DNC stuff we got with Clinton I. I'm not impressed. But what is notable is that Hilary came in THIRD. She's got to issues with that!

Will there be someone worth voting for in November. No, Jonathan there won't be (no matter who is on the ticket from the top three.) But that's not why you should vote. When brothers and sisters defied Jim Crow back in the day to go and just register to vote, it wasn't because those sorry Dixicrats were worth risking their lives for. It's about what their votes stood for, what it leveraged for them. It's an act that should be linked to a bigger strategy of change. It's not about the person running. It's about the people voting claiming what it theirs.