From Iowa cornfields, a left-tilting tradition: Residents point to a progressive core

LAT: From Iowa cornfields, a left-tilting tradition
Residents point to a progressive core, which has shaped history on desegregation, women's rights and other issues.
By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 30, 2007

....As Iowans ponder whom to support in the Jan. 3 caucuses, their state is the first in the heartland to even consider legalizing same-sex marriage -- placing Iowa again in the vanguard and reminding the Democratic presidential hopefuls that progressives here help shape history. Much of coastal blue-state America has long dismissed the Hawkeye State as it has the rest of "flyover country" -- all conservatives, cornfields and clapboard churches -- ignoring a succession of cultural and legal firsts and liberal politicians who made their way to Washington.

The tradition includes Henry A. Wallace, the vice president whom Franklin D. Roosevelt jettisoned because of the Iowan's extreme left leanings, and Sen. Tom Harkin, who bragged in a recent campaign e-mail that "in the Congress, there is no one who has stood stronger against President Bush than I have." Iowa public schools were desegregated nearly a century ahead of 1954's Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka. The state was the first to admit a woman to the bar, in 1869 -- three years before the Supreme Court ruled that states could deny women the right to practice law. Iowa City, with its renowned writing program, became a nuclear-free zone even before Berkeley. And there is no death penalty in the state....

Iowa's long-standing progressive tradition regularly makes its mark on politics. As often as not, caucusgoers deny victory to the perceived centrist running for the Democratic nomination and give their nod to more-liberal contenders. Think 1984, when Walter F. Mondale beat John Glenn, or 1988, when Richard A. Gephardt bested Michael S. Dukakis. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the national front-runner in polls, is struggling here in a tight race against rivals Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who are both perceived to be more liberal. And as the campaign heats up, "the Democratic candidates are generally tilting to the left," said Peverill Squire, a University of Iowa political science professor. But "Clinton is trying to resist it as much as possible, to position herself for the general election."

In a purely political sense, Iowa is actually two states. The rural west of Republican Rep. Steve King -- who is referred to by some as "Iowa's own Pat Buchanan" -- has a strong social-conservative element, while the "liberal core" is urban and eastern. The state also is currently "ascendant," said David Redlawsk, associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa, who notes that for the first time in 40 years Democrats control both the governor's office and the statehouse....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-iowa30dec30,0,4684429,full.story?coll=la-home-nation

who beats all the pukes with a large margin!

would have given obama a listen to and hillary, no way ,someone had to cook and clean while the men were in the fields!

in western iowa..really disliked big railroads and eastern banks. socially conservative as most folks were but progressive in many other ways. he was an interesting guy

Austin is to the rest of Texas...