William Marvel: Learning from Iowa

By bungling the Chinese fire drill they hold instead of a straightforward primary, the Democrats of Iowa inadvertently confirmed the ultimate wisdom of New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner. Conversely, they also demonstrated the absurdity of the criticism leveled against Gardner two years ago for shunning the very voting technology that made those Iowa Democrats look like idiots — assuming that the appearance of idiocy on their part is actually an illusion.

Democrats are the folks who were so frantic about Russian interference in American elections. Perhaps their concern depended on the hope that they could implicate Trump in such a foreign intrigue. Sophisticated electoral manipulation by outsiders should worry all of us, however, and Russia and China may not by the only foreign powers to watch out for. If wizards like Iowa’s Democrats have charge of our elections, they could probably be hacked by Tajikistan.