My own private Iowa

Here's an argument that doesn't pass muster. The mere fact that the majority of Iowa caucus participants are women doesn't show that there's nothing to Clinton's worries about the difficulties women might face in speaking and being heard at a caucus.

That said, I can't say that I agree with the American sanctification of the secret ballot. It's true enough that the preferences we express privately differ from those we express publicly. Why, though, is democracy supposed to require that we privilege the private self over the public self? I guess the idea is that the private self, because it's insulated from social pressure, is somehow more authentic. To me that just sounds nuts. We are essentially social, and if authenticity requires that we isolate ourselves from the influence of others then so much the worse for authenticity.