If you’re a fan of democracy, the Iowa caucuses won’t provide much solace.

Commentary

Here’s hoping that in the old election adage, “As goes Maine, so goes the nation,” Maine isn’t replaced by Iowa.

In my last Around the Block I published an editorial from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel headlined, “Who are we? The people of Iowa will answer first.” https://around-the-block.com/2024/01/14/we-all-know-who-donald-trump-is-the-question-we-have-to-answer-is-who-are-we/ The column’s lede was a quote from a speech President Joe Biden gave recently at Valley Forge, Pa. that launched his re-election campaign: “We all know who Donald Trump is. The question we have to answer is, who are we?”

On Monday, Iowa Republicans answered the question. In the first in the nation actual “vote” of the people (if one can call the bizarro Iowa caucuses “voting”) Donald Trump, the twice impeached, multiply-indicted, court-affirmed sexual offender, garnered 51.0% of the “votes.” He was followed by Ron DeSantis (21.2%), Nikki Haley (19.1%), Vivek Ramaswamy (7.7%), Asa Hutchinson 0.2% and Other Candidates 0.8%.

So much for the Sun-Sentinel’s closing plea: “To give decency a chance is to give democracy a chance. It’s your turn, Iowa.” In response, Iowans showed us who they are!

Since “Field of Dreams” was imagined in Iowa, allow me to use a baseball term: “Iowa, you struck out!”

There are only two things about the Iowa results that might engender some tiny cheer: 1) almost 50% of Iowa caucus goers did not vote for Trump; and 2) we won’t see as much of Vivek Ramaswamy – he dropped out of the race. And then quickly endorsed Trump.

Another editorial, published before the Iowa results ran in the Monday morning New York Times, took another crack at the soul of Americans, this time more directly to GOP voters.

In a piece entitled, “The Responsibility of Republican Voters,” the Times intoned:

Iowa Republicans who will gather on Monday to cast the first votes of the 2024 presidential campaign season, and voters in New Hampshire and the states that will follow, have one essential responsibility: to nominate a candidate who is fit to serve as president, one who will “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

 Donald Trump, who has proved himself unwilling to do so, is manifestly unworthy. He is facing criminal trials for his conduct as a candidate in 2016, as president and as a former president. In this, his third presidential bid, he has intensified his multiyear campaign to undermine the rule of law and the democratic process. He has said that if elected, he will behave like a dictator on “Day 1” and that he will direct the Justice Department to investigate his political rivals and his critics in the media, declaring that the greatest dangers to the nation come “not from abroad, but from within.”

Mr. Trump has a clear path to the nomination; no polling to date suggests he is anything but the front-runner. Yet Republicans in these states still have their ballots to cast. At this critical moment, it is imperative to remind voters that they still have the opportunity to nominate a different standard-bearer for the Republican Party, and all Americans should hope that they do so. This is not a partisan concern. It is good for the country when both major parties have qualified presidential candidates to put forward their competing views on the role of government in American society. Voters deserve such a choice in 2024.

After listing the many reasons why Trump is singularly unfit for office, the Times reminded voting-Republicans, “Voters who favor Mr. Trump’s [policy] prescriptions now have other options.”

What is the Times seeing that the rest of the country (and world) isn’t. Who are the “other options”? DeSantis? Even Florida Republicans are fed up with him. Haley? Slicker and more poised that DeSantis, but in her home state of South Carolina, the most recent polls show her trailing Trump by 29 points, while her “policy” positions meander depending on the audience. And you know how the other “options” fared in Iowa.

In two days, in two editorials, voters were admonished to give decency and democracy a chance while taking responsibility for the kind of individual they vote for and elevate to the White House.

If the Iowa is any prognosticator, half of America isn’t paying attention.

Who is paying attention? The rest of the world, including our European allies.

One day after Trump’s Iowa victory, the E.U. president, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium, whose country currently holds the rotating position, warned that “democracy will be put to the test in U.S. election in November, adding, referring to Trump, “if 2024 brings us ‘America first’ again, it is really more than ever Europe on its own.”