Revisiting the 2008 Campaign

A friend and I met for coffee across the lakes to prepare for the Iowa Democratic caucus on Jan. 15. I took along one of my volunteer sheets from the 2008 presidential campaign to discuss who we might get to volunteer this cycle.

We found ourselves asking the question, “Are they still alive?” before discussing most of them. Long story short, so many people have moved out of the precinct or died since 2008 voters have gone fully Republican here during the general elections in 2020 and 2022.

People scratch their head about how Iowa could vote for Obama twice, then for Trump twice afterward, as we did in my precinct. My interpretation is Iowans are on the move, including rural, conservative folks who want to get closer to the major metros where the jobs are, yet don’t want to live with all the liberals there. They seem to concentrate in rural and outlying subdivisions like ours. People are also on the move out of state where better job opportunities can be found. Not every one wants to become part of the industrial agriculture operations that dominate business in the state. The exodus is encouraged by repressive governance by the current crop of Republican state officials.

The caucuses are important to Democratic party officials who hope to launch an organizing miracle to turn the state purple (we’ve given up on blue). The truth staring us in the face is without the presidential preference part of the caucuses, people lose interest.

There has been good coverage of the caucuses in the Cedar Rapids Gazette with a special section with all the locations in the Sunday paper. People have every reason to know about the caucuses. We’ll see if they turn out and at what level. For perspective, we had 12 Democrats show for caucus in 2012, Obama’s re-election year. If we did that number a week from today, I’d be reasonably happy.