What a coincidence that the Trump press-secretary-who-never-held-a-press-briefing Stephanie Grisham has revealed in her new book (which we will, of course, not buy) that Benedict Donald needed a "Music Man" who would play him show tunes to hose him down when he was in a rage. We cats were just thinking about Iowa!
That's because one of our favorite pols-turned-pundits has weighed in on the anti-vaxx craziness in rural Iowa and the toll it's taking on healthcare workers there. (Not to mention the patients themselves, who are dying.) "This is actually quite sad for me," Howard Dean tweeted. "I spent a year in Iowa and visited all 99 counties. Iowans were engaging, well-educated and thoughtful. Why has the state become so different?"
We have some theories.
First, you can probably trace this phenomenon all the way back to 1976, when Ronald Reagan — the harbinger of today's GOP Awful — first began his ascent in the Iowa Republican caucuses. Although members of the so-called Republican establishment — Bush Senior, Bob Dole, Smirky Bush — prevailed in several contests since, if you look at the list, you can see right-wing idiots hovering in second place and then slowly climbing the ladder to first: Pat Robertson in 1988, Pat Buchanan in 1996, Steve Forbes and Alan Keyes in 2000, Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012 and Ted Cruz in 2016.
It's like watching the spread of a cancer tumor. The Iowa GOP was inexorably giving itself over to the crazies — and now, the process is complete, and the cancer is fatal.
But informed and interested voters can overcome that, right? Well, maybe not. Public education in Iowa has declined over the years: Today, 34 schools in 19 districts across the state fall into the federal "low performing" category. Enrollment in higher education has dropped at double the national rate (although this is probably partially pandemic-related). But Iowa Republicans have waged war on public education for years now, and it's still going full-bore.
Add to that the fact that The Des Moines Register, a good paper, used to have statewide distribution and served as a reliable base of information for voters. Thanks to their cutbacks over the last 30 years — closing news bureaus outside of Des Moines and eliminating carrier routes in rural areas — no more. The decline and fracturing of journalism has consequences.
So, wild conspiracy theories, racism and white resentment can trump education, engagement and information? In Iowa, apparently the answer is yes. We cats HISS.
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