Why Iowa Turned So Red When Nearby States Went Blue

[progressoid]

Over the past 15 years, the Upper Midwest has seen a remarkable state-by-state sorting of voters along partisan lines.

....No state in the nation swung as heavily Republican between 2012 and 2020 as Iowa, which went from a six-percentage-point victory for Barack Obama to an eight-point win for Mr. Trump in the last presidential election.

Deindustrialization of rural reaches and the Mississippi River regions had its impact, as did the hollowing out of institutions, from civic organizations to small-town newspapers, that had given the Upper Midwest a character separate from national politics.

Susan Laehn, an Iowa State University political scientist who lives in the small town of Jefferson, Iowa, recounted how an issue that once would have been handled through discussions at church or the Rotary Club instead became infected with national politics, with her husband, the libertarian Greene County attorney, stuck in the middle: New multicolored lighting installed last summer to illuminate the town’s carillon bell tower prompted an angry debate over L.G.B.T.Q. rights, leaving much of the town soured on identity politics that they largely blamed on the national left.

Another issue: Brain drain. The movement of young college graduates out of Iowa and the Dakotas to the metropolises of Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul made a mark on the politics of all five states....

...more... https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/08/us/politics/iowa-republicans-red.html

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "No state in the nation swung as heavily Republican between 2012 and 2020 as Iowa"

The loss of a Tom Harkin there and the rise (and promotion) of racist freaks like Steve King and his ilk, helped to bring the state to its bottom-of-the-barrel knees.

The timing from 2012 on, was a direct result of the misinformation factory that was generated after the 2010 "Citizens United" decision (and the census), leading to a decade of horror.

I would add Indiana in there too when a decision was made to boot the (D) Bayh family from office, as well as Missouri, that moved to loon when their "bellweather" status disappeared. OH is going the same way, having now deep-sixed their own "bellweather" status in 2020 when it comes to electing Presidents, after decades of bragging about their role in predicting who would win that highest of offices.

The "identity politics" excuse is nothing more than a manufactured outrage that the average person didn't really care about or focus on until the GOP loons decided to highlight it as "bad", and something that deserved more attention than being able to have affordable healthcare or vote without a million hurdles.

[llmart]

2. Small minded people...

So, while Iowa's best and brightest leave the state in droves, the others are worried about the colored lights on the bell tower?

It doesn't get more short-sighted than this.

[Midnight Writer]

3. The death of small-town newspapers and the rise of RW Hate Radio, conservative "news", and internet.

The rural media landscape has been overrun by the conservative media machine. Hundreds of misinformation outlets parroting the same lies, over and over.

Alternate voices have been drowned out.

Meanwhile, instead of building our own media operations to pierce the veil, liberals have decided instead to ridicule the misinformed rubes. We are not likely to persuade folks to come back to sanity by laughing at them. It just makes them perceive us as an enemy.

[rurallib]

4. I don't know if there is any independent media left in Iowa - The Little Village Mag,

Iowastartingline.com and a couple other blogs.

But any media of any size is owned by an out of state corporation.

Plus Branstad's second turn as governor when he let it be known that he was party first, state second. He was so bad for Iowa but the Iowans ate it up.