JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Do you remember the Democratic Iowa caucuses of 2020? Probably not; I didn’t have a clear memory of it, either, until I went back and checked.

It was borderline debacle, with several days of delays in reporting the results, which ultimately ended with Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden winning close to the same number of pledged delegates.

The delays prompted Maggie Astor of The New York Times to write on Thursday, Feb. 6, three days after the caucuses, “We could know the winner of New Hampshire before we know the winner of Iowa.” (New Hampshire’s primary was the following Tuesday.)

Now, it appears the Democratic National Committee has come to its senses and will dump the tradition of Iowa being the first state to weigh in on the primary election.

The Washington Post reported today that the DNC had circulated plans for a 2024 nominating calendar in which as many as five states would hold their contests before March.

If the plan put forward by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee comes to pass, all states would have to reapply for their places in the nominating order, with preference being awarded to states with diverse electorates, competitiveness in the general election and primary elections, not caucuses.

Iowa doesn’t qualify on any of the three criteria. Besides having caucuses, it is 90 percent White and long ago lost its label as a “swing state.”

Some of the states poised to deny Iowa its “first-in-the-nation” status are Michigan (78 percent White), Nevada (66 percent White) and New Jersey (68 percent White).

South Carolina, which turned the 2020 primary election decidedly toward Biden, is likely to maintain an early spot in the process. It is 67 percent White and 27 percent Black.

The proposed new plan makes perfect sense and could give the party a big boost.

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I remember watching the 2020 Iowa caucuses on TV and how utterly boring it was, seeing people checking in at front desks at various venues, then wandering to different clusters in big meeting rooms or gymnasiums.

It reminded me of going to a Missouri caucus, probably in 1972, three years after I arrived in KC from Louisville. It was in the school cafeteria at St. Francis Xavier Church, 52nd and Troost. Like picking sides for playground basketball, we went to groups associated with our preferred candidates. Heads were counted, and then, if groups were not large enough to meet certain criteria, their members split up and headed to other groups.

It was boring and time consuming, all orchestrated by longtime party hacks.

Missouri officially stuck with the caucus system until 2000, when it joined several other states holding “Super Tuesday” primaries.

Super Tuesday is probably a good place for Iowa, too. There it would find its rightful place as an afterthought in the “Democratic” process.