Against Folksy Primaries

Mike Lux at OpenLeft offers up an almost shockingly conventional homage to the virtues of the small state primary tradition. And, of course, I suppose these kind of weird quirks might seem folks and reassuring to you if you, like the majority of the population of Iowa and New Hampshire, are part of the tiny minority of Americans who live in lily white rural areas. I think it'd be fun to see my favorite presidential candidates swipe their MetroCards in the subway or wait on line (yes, on line, damit) for a knish at a hot dog stand.

That said, it's hard to see how any liberal can be happy, at the end of the day, with the distorting effect the disproportionate influence of Iowa and New Hampshire have on our politics. It's bad enough the way cities are disadvantaged by the structure of the constitution, that to also add on this additional extra-constitutional mechanism for further re-enforcing the existing biases of the system is insane. People talk themselves to death trying to design alternative primary schemes, but at this point I'd take pretty much any change you care to name. It would make more sense to enter the names of every registered Democrat in a hat, pick at random, and then let that guy choose.