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Authors: Vinay Kolhatkar
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or extremists—they never won anything, so what was he talking about? If you wanted to win office, you could be right of center or left of center but not off-center.
Ralph Prescott raised his hand again.
“Yes?”
Ralph was quivering as he asked softly, “Ralph Prescott, Boston Monitor . Mr. Stein, if we displease the government, they won’t let us get on to the latest scoops or interviews.”
“So are you going to spend the rest of your life writing what pleases your masters?”
Ralph Prescott said nothing. He sat down.
A diminutive but confident woman got up.
“Kayla Mizzi, Net Station. If governments are unable to create jobs, wealth, and improve the lot of people, why are you bothering to try to get there?”
“To prevent them from making things worse,” Stein said.
There were no more questions.
Stein left as quietly as he had come, a lone figure in a thick winter overcoat making his way to the cab stand to hail a taxi.
7
Iowa, where it all began
It always begins in Iowa in January or February of an election year. For the nomination as well as the final election, voters don’t directly elect their candidates. Instead, they elect delegates who, with only rare exceptions, are obliged to vote for the candidate they have pledged to vote.
The primaries used to be decided in state-by-state elections across a period of several months, except for the day that is called Super Tuesday. In 2008, Super Tuesday moved into February instead of the traditional March. This is the day on which eight key states used to have their primaries, effectively deciding almost half the delegates of the convention—but in 2008, the number swelled from eight states to twenty-three as states tried to increase their influence and move up their primary elections.
By 2019, the process had become so unmanageable that each of the major parties decided to have just two dates on which forty-eight states, minus the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, held their primaries. The last Tuesday of March was designated the new Super Tuesday, with twenty-four states holding their primaries. The last Wednesday of April became Super Wednesday, with the remaining twenty-four states holding their primaries.
This election, the Democratic Iowa caucus was going to be held on Friday, January 10, 2020.
Colin Spain tried to appear unruffled. It was January 6. The crowd at the Des Moines town hall was less than he had expected—much less.
“Middle America,” Colin said, “is suffering. Suffering from neglect. Four years of a Republican government has practically crushed the middle class. The worker. The real worker. The family man. The woman juggling a job and two children. The housewife trying to make ends meet. That’s who I am talking to. Not the great pontificators who ran our economy into the ground.
“The dollar used to be a strong currency. Not so long ago, nine, ten years ago…we used to able to buy over one hundred yen and six Chinese Yuan or eight Swedish kroner with it. You know what we get now? Sixty yen, give or take. Less than six kroner and much less than five Yuan. The U.S. dollar has dropped about thirty percent, ladies and gentlemen, thirty percent, most of it in the last four years.
“The market just downgraded our government debt again. Another downgrade, and U.S. government bonds will be considered junk. And whose fault is it? It is the fault of those who said they run America. The president, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street. But they don’t go home to mortgages and faulty plumbing and load-shedding electricity shortages. I am talking to those who do.
“We, we Middle America, we must take America back from those who ruined it. We must reinvigorate the economy.”
Colin Spain looked around. He couldn’t even tell whether he had the rapt attention of everyone who was there or whether years of apathy made people just listen, without emotion, without a shout or scream or question.
Colin Spain
Ralph Prescott raised his hand again.
“Yes?”
Ralph was quivering as he asked softly, “Ralph Prescott, Boston Monitor . Mr. Stein, if we displease the government, they won’t let us get on to the latest scoops or interviews.”
“So are you going to spend the rest of your life writing what pleases your masters?”
Ralph Prescott said nothing. He sat down.
A diminutive but confident woman got up.
“Kayla Mizzi, Net Station. If governments are unable to create jobs, wealth, and improve the lot of people, why are you bothering to try to get there?”
“To prevent them from making things worse,” Stein said.
There were no more questions.
Stein left as quietly as he had come, a lone figure in a thick winter overcoat making his way to the cab stand to hail a taxi.
7
Iowa, where it all began
It always begins in Iowa in January or February of an election year. For the nomination as well as the final election, voters don’t directly elect their candidates. Instead, they elect delegates who, with only rare exceptions, are obliged to vote for the candidate they have pledged to vote.
The primaries used to be decided in state-by-state elections across a period of several months, except for the day that is called Super Tuesday. In 2008, Super Tuesday moved into February instead of the traditional March. This is the day on which eight key states used to have their primaries, effectively deciding almost half the delegates of the convention—but in 2008, the number swelled from eight states to twenty-three as states tried to increase their influence and move up their primary elections.
By 2019, the process had become so unmanageable that each of the major parties decided to have just two dates on which forty-eight states, minus the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, held their primaries. The last Tuesday of March was designated the new Super Tuesday, with twenty-four states holding their primaries. The last Wednesday of April became Super Wednesday, with the remaining twenty-four states holding their primaries.
This election, the Democratic Iowa caucus was going to be held on Friday, January 10, 2020.
Colin Spain tried to appear unruffled. It was January 6. The crowd at the Des Moines town hall was less than he had expected—much less.
“Middle America,” Colin said, “is suffering. Suffering from neglect. Four years of a Republican government has practically crushed the middle class. The worker. The real worker. The family man. The woman juggling a job and two children. The housewife trying to make ends meet. That’s who I am talking to. Not the great pontificators who ran our economy into the ground.
“The dollar used to be a strong currency. Not so long ago, nine, ten years ago…we used to able to buy over one hundred yen and six Chinese Yuan or eight Swedish kroner with it. You know what we get now? Sixty yen, give or take. Less than six kroner and much less than five Yuan. The U.S. dollar has dropped about thirty percent, ladies and gentlemen, thirty percent, most of it in the last four years.
“The market just downgraded our government debt again. Another downgrade, and U.S. government bonds will be considered junk. And whose fault is it? It is the fault of those who said they run America. The president, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street. But they don’t go home to mortgages and faulty plumbing and load-shedding electricity shortages. I am talking to those who do.
“We, we Middle America, we must take America back from those who ruined it. We must reinvigorate the economy.”
Colin Spain looked around. He couldn’t even tell whether he had the rapt attention of everyone who was there or whether years of apathy made people just listen, without emotion, without a shout or scream or question.
Colin Spain
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