The winner of the Iowa strong poll is Michele Bachmann. Not exactly a surprise (she grew up in Iowa). Other than the home town advantage, how did she win?
One of the interesting things about a two-party system is how the candidates go through distinct phases to get elected. The first phase, which we are in now, is the primary stage. During this stage, each candidate has to win their party’s primary in order to move to the final stage. Because each party can only vote in their own primary, the partisanship angle is played very heavy during this stage.
For the right, that means you speak a lot about never raising taxes, faith and how the right to life is of the utmost importance, how marriage is between a man and a woman, etc… For the left, that means you speak a lot about never cutting medicare, medicaid, and social security, how the right to choose what to do with ones own body is fundamental, how freedom to marry should be everyone’s right, etc…
The problem then lies in figuring out or deciphering who is a true believer and who is telling you what they want the base to hear, but is actually more open to compromise to lead the nation. That can be quite difficult. This go around it seems even harder. Most of the candidates seem more like true believers than consensus builders. That sounds like a good thing right? Well, with a two-party system, being a true believer and not being willing to compromise is not the way to lead the nation.
To Iowa voters, Michele Bachmann represented the true believer they were looking for. She has risen quite prominently recently and doesn’t seem to be losing steam. Will she become more moderate as the race moves towards the main event? Will she win the nomination. Only time will tell. For now, she is just the true believer that Iowa had hoped for.
