GOP in Trouble: My Personal Iowa Experience

This is a great firsthand account that gave me some hope.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/29/213138/152


GOP in Trouble: My Personal Iowa Experience
by thereisnospoon
Tue May 29, 2007 at 07:57:04 PM PDT



snip//

I strolled up to the bar and approached nearer to the television--and to the far more interesting words it was obscuring from its denizens. When one of the employees turned to offer me a drink in the down-to-earth, friendly manner only a down-home Midwestern bartender can, I pointed instead to the television and indicated that I had sidled over for the news, rather than a drink. It was at that moment that another employee, a handsome, weary-looking woman in her late thirties with a heavy golden crucifix around her neck exclaimed, "What a damn waste!"

"The war?" I asked. Everyone at the bar nodded. It turned out that the occupation of Iraq was deeply personal for several of them: one, an attractive young woman in her mid-twenties with the demure earnestness of the reserved regular church-goer, had a cousin currently serving in Iraq as part of the first battalion to ever go there from Iowa under W's regime. He was supposed to be home by now, but his tour of duty had been extended through July. I wished for his speedy and safe return in July; her response was heartbreaking. "IF he gets home then; I don't know if he'll ever make it home, alive or not." Another had a cousin who had died from an IED in a poorly armored humvee. The third employee's patron's son reportedly had a friend whose head was horribly disfigured in another IED blast, and was now struggling to survive through the paltry graces of the post-Walter Reed Veterans' Administration. I asked the woman whose cousin was on his extended tour how he felt. She responded with a sigh, "Just like the rest of his unit. He was totally gung-ho when he first went in, but now he's 180 degrees the other direction. He says there's no reason to be there anymore, and he just wants to come home." It was painfully reminiscent of a New York Times article that came to similar conclusions when interviewing Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division.

The original woman bearing the cross continued, "They're only there for oil, you know."

"Really!" I said. I explained that I talked to people for a living and had never been to Iowa before, and that I was deeply interested in what they had to say for my own education. "That's good," said the patron, a gruff man in his fifties. "Nobody else ever listens to us. Certainly not the people in Washington."

I asked the first woman why she thought it was an oil-driven war (I didn't use the Occupation frame--I was then involved in the discovery of opinions, rather than their creation), and when she had begun to feel that way. Her answer was at once surprsing and deeply revealing: "A few years after it started, when everything was clearly going downhill. Bush and those boys never changed anything about what they were doing there, even when it obviously wasn't working. And we're still there when everybody knows we got no business there. What else are we supposed to think? What other reason could there be?"

I asked in turn each of the others when they had soured on the war; they would only answer after I had assured them that I felt the same revulsion to Bush's foreign policy as did they. Each and every one said that their discontent had begun two or three years back. Said the patron, "Like she said, we've got no business there. These people have been fighting one another since the beginning of time..." "Since Adam and Eve, almost," chipped in the third employee, whose vague grasp of even Biblically-inspired history did not diminish her moral judgment of Bush's Iraqi trail of tears. "It's not our job to civilize them and make them stop fighting, even if we could. It's pointless and ridiculous. We just need to bring our boys home." Although these good, God-fearing people could not bring themselves to take responsibility for what the government they helped elect had wrought on the Iraqi people, they still knew a skunk when they saw one.

snip//

This place, with it's large army base and multitude of retired military, is still pretty right-wing. (Although Gabrielle Giffords was elected to take Kolbe's place, due mostly to the voters up north in Tucson.) There are still plenty of bush/cheney bumper stickers around town.

But last time I visited, a record-store owner in Tempe told me that there were roving gangs of yourg Republicans who would break any shop window that displayed anything remotely 'lefty' or artistic/political. Jesus. Good luck down there.

California! Except for Arnold.

That struck me as a bit chilling. Were they truly afraid, or just leery of offending? Either way, it's not very promising for the future of our democracy.

wanting to tread on strangers' toes. But once I know we're on the same page, watch out!

When Bush ws in Iowa to campaiogn for some Repuke or other

CNN was trumpeting his arrival there, while what you saw on the screen was a group of people in a cafeteria trying to duck the hell away from the man.

The MidWest is an area where people have know-how and a cooperative let's get it done together spirit. Midwesterners understand that a plan works or it doesn't -and they just as easily figure out when someone doesn't have a plan at all.

actually won in '04, legitimately, that is? Right! :argh:

out there if a soldier is killed everyone within 40 or more miles know them and many know him/her`s extended family. they are disappointed and some down right pissed off by what they see and hear from washington.
the party can take these votes from the republicans if they don`t try and bullshit them. we will see if the party cares

As long as it was primarily the "all voluntary" regular Army and Marines involved, many people would dismiss complaints with "well they volunteered for this". When those troops returned stateside, they were mostly clustered around the major military bases, were still active duty, and had limited contact with the general civilian population.

Things changed when it was a local National Guard (or Reserve) unit that was activated and shipped out for a year. The NG members had deep roots in their communities, had very different expectations about what they had "volunteered" to do, and were much freerer to speak out and to criticize the war once they had returned and were deactivated. When they spoke, their neighbors listened and believed them. If they were killed or injured, it literally "hit home".

The activation of the National Guard has fueled the growing opposition to the war in much the same way that the draft had during Vietnam.

Iowa pig farmer that Dana Milbank said could not possibly understand Al Gore's big words? What an insult. If I were an Iowan, I'd be filling Milbank's e-mail with all sorts of BIG words.

Usually I like Dana Milbank, but I found his column today insulting and patronizing in the extreme.

Not everyone in the country slavishly follows the fashion our current White House Occupant has set of being 'incurious', inarticulate, uninformed, and proud of their ignorance.
Being informed doesn't make one pedantic or abstruse either.

Besides, he missed the really important question, the one that we need to consider everytime somebody is up for election.

Is Al Gore the kind of guy you'd like to have a beer with?
:sarcasm:
And for the record...HELL, YES!

That column really pissed me off...:grr:

"worst President Ever". It is a great looking shirt.
The first time I wore it out in public I wore it into what was reputed to be a very red city - Muscatine - for lunch. I was a bit scared but i figured stand up for what i believe. I had barely sat down when the waiter came over and said "The kitchen staff and I want to say Thank You for that shirt" And my lunch was interrupted by slaps on the back and handshake after handshake. Probably 15 or so people came up to me.
Fast forward to the day after Bush vetoed the funding bill. Muscatine again. I was wearing another of my "worst president" shirts. Since I wear them all the time now I often forget that I have one on. Every place I went people stopped me and let loose about Bush. In some cases very vulgar language. One guy cornered me in a grocery store and just couldn't stop cussing Bush. People were pissed off royally. This in a town that is the main source of money for Republicans in Iowa.
I would say Bush is truly hated in Iowa now. Are we a bellweather?

what changes have occurred in these two states?

I can add that my MIL in Idaho has done a 180 on Bush since 2000, but she always qualifies it with the line 'there all a bunch of crooks anyway'.

that always amazes me that the older generation has such a low bar of acceptance. How exactly are we supposed to leave a better country to our kids with grandparents like that? Hope everyone else has better grandparents.

The latest rant is that we should just get rid of them all. They can't bear vote for a Democrat or simply admit that a Democrat was right. They would rather just tar the whole lot.

He is a rabid Pub....Last year he was still high on Bush...this past January...total change...he soured on Bush, called him a "Dumb ass fool"

The few Pubs I know in Hawaii...most are changing ...sickened by the current events.....

:kick: and R!

Thanks for posting.

to defend the oil ministry building and installations. Nuff said!

And by us, I don't mean just Iowans.
It's true that many will always vote repub because of traditional values like misogyny, guns and vaginal-only sex. But I'm hopeful that many will realize that they have been voting against their own best interests. Many people here don't know the Repubs have been taking advantage of them for decades. This war is their wake-up call. A cruel and awful wake-up call.

Trouble is, these people still don't get it...much the same way most Americans never learned the real lessons of the Vietnam War.