Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

  It is unlikely that the last word has been said on the subject. But the new Biden plan to rejigger the order of caucuses/primaries for the 2024 season is fascinating. I think of ethanol. The idea of mixing corn alcohol with gasoline as a way of extending gas mileage, helping the environment, and whatever else (preventing children from getting cavities even if they eat candy?) has always been dubious. Now, in the midst of a move away from the internal combustion engine toward other methods of getting personal vehicles to take you where you want to go, it seems hidebound and reactionary, a way of trying to lock us in with the force of law to a technology we should cheerfully dismiss.  Yet, for an obvious reason, Iowans love ethanol. They love rules that press upward on the price of their key export: corn.  That is an adequate reason, IMHO, to demote Iowa.  

It may be (unless a leader of unexpected stature and skill shows up soon) that the GOP will go the way of the Federalist Party in the near future. They'll do decently in the midterm elections of 2014, when only the hardcores show up to vote anyway. BUT they could splinter so badly in the run-up to 2016 as to give Hillary Clinton a cakewalk. And if that happens, the splintering will worsen until there is no opposition party to speak of, just as there was not when the Federalists fell apart. The feelings in the so-called "Era of Good Feelings" weren't especially good, though. One has to hope that Democratic Party dominance won't last and will have the consequence (as it eventually did in that context) of a splintering within their own ranks. The Whig Party came about because through the course of Monroe's 8 years large chunks of the Democratic Party decided they couldn't abide the consequences of their triumph, and they walked. So ... Hillary wins as...