Advanced Search
Love For Our Southern Neighbors
This week, we've seen Iowa dominate the national news culminating in the caucuses on Tuesday night. We've heard a lot about conservative Iowa, a state where voters pick their candidates by who is farther to the right on social, economic and foreign policy issues. The candidates that descended on the state did everything in their power to live up to that standard, focusing their rhetoric on attacking proven progressive economic policy, immigrants, women and the LGBT community.
This might be a moment of weakness for me, defending the state of Iowa, but given all the news, I feel compelled to point something out: the Iowa portrayed to the nation these last few days is not the real Iowa.
- The real Iowa is a national leader in allowing every citizen to marry the person they love. The support of marriage equality, it turns out, was an economic plus for the state.
- The real Iowa focused on issues that really matter and made the clean energy economy a priority. That's one of the reasons it has the nation's 6th lowest unemployment rate.
- That solid turnout in Iowa on Tuesday, is thanks in part to progressive voting laws that promote a strong democracy including day-of registration and no picture ID requirement.
Don't get me wrong, soon enough I will return to my normal position, rooting for the Gophers over the Hawkeyes and reminding anyone who will listen that Minnesota, not Iowa, is the best national model for a growing economy thanks to our world-class education system, smart health care systems and support for innovative industries.
But as progressives it's important to take the fight to where it is, and this week that means reminding the nation that Iowa is a great state thanks to progressive public policy.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Midwestern States 2012 Election
14 Comments
January 6, 2012 at 11:19 am
Please, don’t insult the circus. That psychotic spectacle was no circus; it was a pathetic display. And the whole show is moving north, you betcha, as MN wrestles with Voter ID, Right to Work, Gay Marriage, etc. The sewage flows north this year!
January 5, 2012 at 9:20 pm
As I have watched the circus going on in Iowa, my one big thought has been,” Thank God it is them and not us”. I thought I had seen everything in politics, but they went way over the edge. I guess Newt’s
new case of religion was my biggest surprise, with his moral record of three marriages and numerous affairs???Problem? Sorry I have a difficult time seeing sincerity there. Problem is we can have a lot of religion on the outside, and fool people. Christianity is what is on the inside that shows forth in Christ’s command “to love our brother as our self.” We would not have the mess we have in America if that command was in place in
politics. I have wonderful friends in Iowa so this was such a small minority of the citizens there.
January 5, 2012 at 5:17 pm
“When I hear politicians say God has talked to them and told them to do what they are doing I want to throw-up. Religion needs to get back to its churches and deal with saving their parishioner’s soles.”
Christian religious leaders and their followers need to get back to the core messages of Jesus, and that is taking care of the poor, visiting prisoners, helping widows and orphans and the like. It is not adhering to every jot and tittle that provides some sort of excuse for discriminating against gays and lesbians or not taking care of the poor among us. Those actions, in my view, are taking care of their souls. A soul (if you believe that) can’t be of much importance if it hangs around the individual body and never reaches out.
January 5, 2012 at 3:27 pm
I’m an Iowan by marriage. And I have to tell you that the GOP candidates and their campaigns, the people who supported them (including the Super PACs), and the Iowa GOP owe the citizens of Iowa an apology for turning their state into a vomitorium of hatred, bigotry, homophobia, stupidity, nonsense, violence,paranoia, and other psychosis. And the media is equally to blame for legitimizing it all. No one deserves to be trashed and bashed like that. The whole spectacle was as disgusting as anything I’ve ever had the misfortune of witnessing. Every one of these operatives belongs in a mental institution or jail, not free to wreak their poison on people who, in Meredith Wilson’s words, “would give you the shirt off their back and a back to go with it.” The whole thing was, in Dicken’s words, a humbug!
January 5, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Iowa has always been the state that protected our backside. They are hard working and expect everyone else to carry their fair share. Don’t forget their great educational system. Gradually they must become part of the greater United States. My only concern is all the hate groups located there. 10 KKK cells plus several more varied organizations. We are Minnesota nice, Iowans are even nicer. I hope the hate groups don’t ruin their reputation.
January 5, 2012 at 12:28 pm
I do agree with you about the wacky nature of our politics these days. However, I think a lot of what the Republicans have been saying about the courts and impeachment is a fraud and just a lot of puffery. Impeachment requires a 2/3rds majority in the Senate. While some a speculating the GOP might pick up a couple of Senate seats, still not close to 2/3rds. The same goes with ratification to an Amendment to the Constitution. That might even be a 3/4trs majority. Anyway, it is unlikely they will ever happen.
The fraudulent talk by the GOP about the courts and impeachment is intended to keep the multitudes of ignorant Republicans (many of them in the Tea Party) stirred up, so they vote. The GOP specializes in quixotic ploys to keep the ignorant in their ranks riled up. The unfortunate thing is the GOP is destroying peoples’ faith in Government, and just for a political purpose.
What has happened to our country that political power is more important than the survival of our country.
January 5, 2012 at 11:55 am
I wish what you said was “absolutely” true, but it isn’t. Court decisions are nice, but not enforceable. (Who would enforce a Court decision, IF…) To this point in our history very few have directly challenged our courts, especially the US Supreme Court. However, that can be changed and quickly by any administration which is willing to thumb its nose at the Courts, or by the Congress which could in theory simply impeach the entire Court. In fact, there has been recent rhetoric to that possibility from the Republican camp. Furthermore, Governor Rick Perry has also mentioned seven parts of the US Constitution he would like to eliminate or change. How much more radical can these Republicans get? Real Americans should stand up and be prepared to fight a take over of our government by right wing Republican extremists.
January 5, 2012 at 11:04 am
I don’t know the definition of “hiding behind the bible,” but to rule out any politician who invokes the bible or says he or she bases policy on it is unconstitutional. They can run on whatever cockamany agenda they want, but if elected, they cannot act on it. Rick Santorum, if elected, could not somehow decree all birth control illegal.
January 5, 2012 at 10:34 am
I think there is a place for God in the politician, but there is also a place for no God in a politician. We want people with good values, not just faux religious. There are too many politicians who were the mantle of religiosity, but somehow are not able to follow the basic tenets of their faith.
We don’t need more charlatans and “Elmer Gantry’s.” We need people who have values to do good for the many, instead of self-promotion. When I hear politicians say God has talked to them and told them to do what they are doing I want to throw-up. Religion needs to get back to its churches and deal with saving their parishoner’s soles, not corrupting politicans more than it already is.
January 5, 2012 at 10:14 am
There is no place for religion in politics but there is a place for God in the politician.
January 5, 2012 at 10:13 am
I don’t think you can call Iowa a national leader in allowing anyone to marry the person they love. The real Iowans voted out three of their own supreme court justices because of their decisions in support of gay marriage. Clearly, Iowa citizens who support marriage without regard to the the sex of the partners are in the minority.
January 5, 2012 at 9:22 am
Just take religion out of politics. The Tea Party Republicans are always talking about the consitution. So any politician hidding behind the Bible should not be allowed to run for an office in this country.
Dan Conner says:
January 6, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Right on David! I think the GOP might as well recruit their candidates from Barnum and Bailey. The ones they have now are a joke. It’s is pathetic they can’t field better candidates than they have. Right now, they shouldn’t be entrusted running a Mc Donald’s.