Smith: Americans are rejecting the status quo

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, presents a check to members of Support Siouxland Soldiers during a campaign event at the Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. Also pictured is Jerry Falwell, Jr., right, president of Liberty University. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, presents a check to members of Support Siouxland Soldiers during a campaign event at the Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. Also pictured is Jerry Falwell, Jr., right, president of Liberty University. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Today, Democrats and Republicans will cast the votes in the Iowa Caucus to choose whom they want to represent the respective political parties for president of the United States. In 99 county conventions across the Hawkeye state, partisans will convene in just under 1,700 precincts in churches, recreation centers and schools to elect delegates for each party's respective candidates. These delegates, in turn, then cast their ballots through a series of votes over the course of the evening.

Democrats and Republicans have different procedures to accomplish the same goal by the end of the evening: Name a winner of the Iowa Caucuses for each party.

The map of Iowa, a state whose population noted by the US Census Bureau in 2014 to be half that of Tennessee's - just over 3.1 million - could be used to play checkers. The state, 310 mile wide and 199 miles long, has almost all of its counties drawn in squares or rectangles. Without question, the science of grassroots politics has been refined in this geography in the heart of these United States.

Championed to be the first location for ballots cast every four years in the presidential primaries since 1972, Iowa is always identified with rural agricultural life, yet, manufacturing remains the state's largest economic driver.

Interesting to our state, the outcome of the Iowa Caucus is a good indication as to the Volunteer State's voting.

On the GOP side, George W. Bush won the Iowa Caucus in both 2000 and 2004, Mike Huckabee won in 2008 and Rick Santorum carried the Caucus victory in 2012. The outcomes of the Tennessee voting tallies matched this. For Democrats, the only exception was noted in Tennessee's support of Hillary Clinton in 2008 while the Iowa Caucus chose Barack Obama. They, too, mirrored their partisan brethren during 2000 with Al Gore, 2004 with John Kerry and Obama for both 2008 and 2012.

Is it because Tennessee's early voting cycle actually places our voting start just after the New Hampshire primary (the second grand election on the primary calendar)? Is it because the political demographics of the voting populace of both Iowa and Tennessee have a similar bent on issues involving the approach to governing?

Analysts continue to ponder the mechanics of the winning campaigns across the years that include so many qualifiers and identifying traits of the various regional voting blocs.

The 2016 presidential election has already made history in being that "outlier" that both political parties and individual campaigns will analyze over the course of years.

The other guarantee seen on a bi-partisan basis in the Iowa Caucus projections is that the level of palpable fatigue and anger with the retreads of party fixtures - whether they're from first families or operating with a resume chocked full of government seniority - is the driving fuel for voters.

Voters recognize that the outcomes of governance have become less distinguishable between national political parties despite campaign pledges and promises. This year, whether it's Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders representing the sentiment, most Americans are rejecting the political status quo.

Robin Smith, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, is owner of Rivers Edge Alliance.

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