--- title: Why We Should Get Rid of the Iowa Caucus description: The case against the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, why doctors can't tell patients they're dying and more. canonical: https://time.com/4202159/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-01T17:01:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:30.364Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why We Should Get Rid of the Iowa Caucus og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4202159/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why We Should Get Rid of the Iowa Caucus twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why We Should Get Rid of the Iowa Caucus by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 1, 2016 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 1, 2016 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Get rid of the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary.**](http://www.vox.com/2016/1/31/10874446/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-case-against) By Dylan Matthews in Vox **2\.** [**Why are doctors so bad at telling patients they’re dying?**](http://www.statnews.com/2016/01/29/how-to-tell-people-they-are-dying/) By Bob Tedeschi in Stat News **3\.** [**The only thing more expensive than educating Syria’s refugee children is the cost of a lost generation.**](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/31/syria-children-education-rich-countries) By Malala Yousafzai and Muzoon Almellehan in the Guardian **4\.** [**Flint’s water crisis was 50 years in the making.**](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0131-highsmith-flint-water-crisis-20160131-story.html) By Andrew R. Highsmith in the Los Angeles Times **5\.** [**Scientists might have discovered a genetic cause behind schizophrenia — a possible path to treatment.**](http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/01/huge-genetic-breakthrough-on-schizophrenia.html) By Melissa Dahl in the Science of Us  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4202159/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4202159/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary/"},"headline":"Why We Should Get Rid of the Iowa Caucus","datePublished":"2016-02-01T17:01:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:30.364Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4202159/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary/","keywords":["Innovation","Death","Syria","Flint","schizophrenia","iowa caucus"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4202159/iowa-caucus-new-hampshire-primary/","name":"Why We Should Get Rid of the Iowa Caucus"}}]}] ```