Will the Occupy movement destroy the comely state of Iowa? Considering that they plan on interrupting a few caucuses and hollering in some offices, one can safely assume... no. But whatever they're planning on doing, it's apparently enough to scare the Iowa Republican party into secret bunkers, where they'll be safe from this nefarious grasp of "political activists."
The Occupiers have begun flooding into the state in recent days to plan caucus-related hijinks over the next week. The AP reports:
Hundreds of Occupy activists from at least 10 states were expected to participate in a "People's Caucus" near the Capitol to plot activities between now and Tuesday's caucuses. The activists are promising to interrupt candidates at events and camp out at their Iowa campaign offices.
They say they want to change the political dialogue, but critics fear their tactics could tarnish Iowa's reputation for civil political discourse ahead of the contest. Activists say mass arrests are possible.
They planned to break up into preference groups based on which candidates they want to target and present with a list of grievances.
The usual, so far. But what frightens state officials the most is Occupy Caucus' plan for protesters "who live in Iowa to show up on caucus night and vote 'no preference,'" thus exposing the sham that is American democracy by participating in American democracy! And while they maintain that they "have no plans to interfere with the voting itself," that's precisely the scenario that the scaredy cats are preparing for:
Washington (CNN) – The Republican Party of Iowa has decided to move the counting of returns in next Tuesday's caucuses to a secret location because of security concerns, CNN has confirmed.
State party officials refused to confirm the move, which was prompted by threats from the Occupy protestors who are vowing to disrupt campaign events in the next week. So far they have said they are not planning to disrupt the caucuses themselves although the party is preparing just in case.
Hmm... do you think that if Ron Paul ends up losing, his fans might have some questions about the validity of returns counted in a "secret location"? It wouldn't be that out of the question, really. A Ron Paul win would not be good for the Iowa Republican party's reputation, which is why everything's so fun right now.
Update: The Romney HQ is in the process of being tented.
[Image via AP]
The Iowa Occupiers' Chilling Plot to Engage in Participatory Democracy [2012]
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