When I Run for President . . .

I will point out how a couple of historical coincidences, a New Hampshire state law, and tradition have decreed that only a tiny handfull of states fire off the first presidential primary contests each election cycle.  These first four events have too often shaped the commitments of the candidates and eventually the platforms of their parties. But these four states, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, are not representative of the United States! They are rural, small, self-sufficient entities that have no appreciation of the problems that haunt New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania for example, or of the problems peculiar to Florida and Texas, or the big cities or the great mass of Americans.   These four states contain less than 11,700,000 people, or 3.7% of the total American population.  Yet this 3.7% ALWAYS have a large say in the choice of the person who will be the next president of the United States and the commitments made by both parties. 

Perhaps at one time, the contests of these four states were significant because they indicated the comparative strengths of the candidates and showed how they dealt with issues that were important to these small rural states.  But in today’s world, all politics is universal.  Every word uttered by any candidate in Iowa is broadcast across the world, every mistake made by any contestant is repeated again and again.  

So.  The remedy is simple.  When I run for president I will campaign in these four states, like everybody else,  but I will not cater to the “local” vote, being determined to get my viewpoint out to the entire country.  Whether I do well in Iowa or New Hampshire, or those other two places matter not in the full swing of things.  I will happily finish dead last in those four states as long as I can make clear my intention concerning matters of concern to the other 97% of the people of the United States.

I just hope that I am not the only one who understands this.