Democrats cast the first votes in the 2020 Democratic Primary Monday in Iowa. So far, so good — the casting of the votes went fine, but the counting of the votes? Not so much. In a display of incompetence stunning even for the Democratic Party, technical difficulties caused by an app malfunction meant that even as all awoke this morning, there were no results.
Not exactly no results, actually. In the Republican caucus that uses a simpler app-free system of voting, the numbers flowed in and quickly showed Donald Trump had won 97 percent of the vote. The other 3 percent was split evenly between Never Trumpers William Weld and John Walsh. Both this result and the non-result for the Democrats tell us a lot about the current political moment.
The biggest takeaway from the Democratic debacle is that whoever the winners were saw the shine rubbed off their prize significantly. First of all, under the old system in 2016, the results were in by 10 p.m. Eastern Time, allowing for close to prime time victory speeches and a chance to spike the football.
The delay also meant there are no blaring headlines trumpeting the winner in today’s newspapers. This would already be bad enough, but is compounded by the fact that by the time we know the results today, we will already be moving into Senate impeachment speeches this afternoon, the State of the Union address this evening, and the acquittal vote tomorrow. RIP news cycle, we hardly knew ya.
If, as many suspect, Bernie Sanders was among last night’s big winners, the irony is that it was he and his supporters, who felt cheated by the process in 2016, who demanded the changes in the process that led to this entire unfortunate situation.
Also, as bad as this is for the winner or winners, it’s arguably even better for the losers, especially if one of them, as suspected, is Joe Biden. But by the time we come up for air Thursday, Iowa will seem a distant memory as we move into New Hampshire, where hopefully there are Democrats who know how to count.
On the other side, the 97 percent tally for Donald Trump may not seem like a big deal. After all, he is an incumbent president who is popular in the party. But we should look at it within the full context of the last three years. The reason Trump had opposition at all was that his opponents bought into the notion that there is some sizable GOP constituency that wants an alternative to the uncouth commander in chief.
IT takes time to figure out how to break it to the ignorant, naïve masses that they all selected exactly who the DNC wanted.
Vote for Bernie and he’ll work the same magic for the rest of the country, too!!
Can we have some Democrats tell us again how much we all hate Trump? I’m losing confidence that it is true.
@Deplorable Me:
every democrap, hollyywood elitis, all the democrap congress, hate America. when on ponders that fact the media protects the hollyywood rapist, drug users , dealers, pedophiles, and losers it is no wonder how the rest of this great country finds no use for the new amrican communist party-democraps.
So, 97% have signed on for Trump’s Republican Götterdämmerung, chaining themselves in a long line to an anvil that assures them it will float…
It’s their own decision.
@Greg: Success is good. Trump is success. Trump is a leader. Democrats offer nothing but destroying success.
@Greg:
Stop describing your Democrat Party. What’s really going to burn you is the black voter turnout for Trump. Can’t wait to hear your excuses then, or your silence.
You and your party can’t stand to see that Trump’s ideals are better than yours.
@Nathan Blue: Greg sounds like the idiot boob Schiff, predicting Trump will give Alaska away for Russian help in defeating… who? Butt gouge? Wahoo Warren? Quid pro quo Gropin’ Genius Joe? Bloomblah? Give me a break. It’s like AJ going on and on and on and on about Trump killing someone and still having support. They are pathetic in their obvious desperation.