And now, all eyes turn to Iowa.

O.K., we don’t really need to say that. Feels as if all eyes have been on Iowa forever. Right now, the little state in the middle of the country has more political punch than the United States Senate. Plus no Mitch McConnell. What more can you ask?

The quadrennial ritual known as the Iowa caucuses is here. On Monday, Democratic voters will march off to a local gym or school auditorium or hotel ballroom and do their thing. When the results are announced, one or two candidates will be propelled into semiofficial front-runner status. One or two others will survive to trudge again through New Hampshire.

Eight or nine will be gone for good. They won’t all admit it, of course. But we’ll know.

We’ve now gotten to the point, which comes in almost every story about the Iowa caucuses, when it’s time to complain about the system that gives one smallish, rather homogeneous state so much political clout. Most of us live in non-first places where the candidates are spotted mainly at fund-raising events. But you get the impression a lot of people in Cedar Rapids not only get to shake hands with all their favorites; they expect a positive response when they invite them over for dinner.

How did Iowa get all this power? It started back in the 1970s, when the Democratic candidate-picking system moved from the party leaders to the regular voters. Iowa wound up going first and really enjoyed the attention. It’s going to keep that spot even if it has to start holding the caucuses in August. “We take this very seriously,” said Troy Price, the state Democratic Party chairman, in a phone interview.