The competing solutions are as unclear and undeveloped as they are conflicting. There is a good historical reason for this and it is not exclusive to the US and its hapless Democratic party. There is a crisis on the centre Left in almost all Western countries and it is to do with the decline of those industries whose workforces these parties once spoke for.

Unlike the forces of the democratic Right which have always based their appeal on individual rights and meritocratic aspiration, the parties of the Left have spoken for collective solidarity - for trade unions and class loyalties. They relied on a soft kind of Marxist logic: that only through unity could working class (what Americans call blue collar) people make their voices heard.

But the great industries have left. The steel and car manufacturers have abandoned the American Rust Belt and their once proud workers have been unemployed for two generations. For millions of people, the Calvinist work ethic and the American dream of self-improvement have crashed.

What does the Democratic party have to say to them? Last time round, it had a leader in Hillary Clinton who did not even bother to campaign in their states and talked of little else but the need for women to break glass ceilings.

Which women did she mean? The ones in the Rust Belt who were worried about putting food on the table? Or that tiny proportion of women (maybe 5 or 6 percent of the female population) who are among the most privileged, highly qualified people in the world and who are furious because they are not getting the top jobs?

In fact, the move to identity politics is inherently divisive - thats the whole point of it - and does not speak with a clear political message which voters can choose to support even if it does not represent their own personal interests.

It is much more visceral than that. It is about what you are - your race or ethnicity or gender - rather than what you believe. And as a consequence, it is not a matter for debate or rational argument.

So more is at risk here than the lost soul of the Democratic party, or Labour, or any of the soft Left parties of Europe.

What is at stake is the very notion of politics being about ideas and principles.

So maybe what they are saying is true. Who won the Iowa caucus actually doesnt matter at all.

Read Janet Daleys latest column ontelegraph.co.ukevery Saturday from 1pm

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The chaos in Iowa is a fitting reflection of the sorry state of the Democratic party - Telegraph.co.uk