Having spent the last umpteen hours watching people dump all over my beloved native state in all manner of ways, I have to say a few words.
No, not about the caucus per se. We fucked that up good and proper, and looking into how this crapshow went down needs to happen. Having said that, though, as an aside...Christ, we’ve become entitled and impatient. I’ve never seen so many pearls clutched when results weren’t blasted out within minutes. Yeah, it turned into something of a debacle, but let’s face it, people were freaking over the delay well before there was evidence of any problems with the reporting infrastructure.
But that’s not why I’m writing this diary. I’m writing this diary to tell people to knock it off about calling us a “red state” or a “Republican state”. Because we most certainly are not, and I’m tired of making the corrections to all the people who only know of us based on the moronic ramblings of Steve King. Some facts:
- We voted Democratic in 6 of last 8 Presidential elections, and in one of those (‘04) Bush only won by 0.6%.
- In the last 20 years, we’ve had 2 Democratic and 2 Republican governors.
- From 2007 to 2010, Democrats had “the trifecta” and controlled the governorship and both state houses of our legislature.
- The Iowa Senate was controlled by Democrats from ‘07-16, and in ‘05-’06 there was a tie that resulted in a power sharing agreement between the parties.
- We had 1 Republican (Grassley) and 1 Democratic Senator (Tom Harkin) for many years. Harkin served for 30 years as our senator until he retired in ‘15. Ernst picked up his seat, and evidence is good that she is quite vulnerable in November.
Oh, and btw, referring to us as “hicks”, “hayseeds”, and similar such epithets isn’t particularly helpful, either, but those were being bandied about in abundance last night as well, I noticed. According to our 2010 census data, 1,950,256 Iowans were considered “Urban” while 1,096,099 were considered “Rural”. Actual, honest-to-God, “get up on the tractor at dawn to plant corn after checking on the cows” farmers make up only about 5% of our workforce. We have more graphic designers and accountants in the state than farmers (seriously).
So, whatever else you may have to say about what happened with the caucuses last night, or our “first in the nation” position in the lineup, or whatever, get one thing through your heads: Iowa is not a red state. Purple, perhaps, but definitely not red by any means.