I am hating my state this morning.

it used to be a dependable, solid Democratic state.

amounts of money in the state plus wall-to-wall right wing hate radio.

The Democratic Party needs to be rebuilt in Iowa,North and South Dakota from the inside out. That 46 billion in farm subsides gave Trump and friends their votes. Not the first time this has happened.

all the old timers have long since been buried in some grave yard. Tom Dashel abandoned the Sodak Dems for a Lobbyist life style in DC. Have a friend who was a County Dem Chair and he just gave up trying to grow his Party. National Partly would not give him the resources to keep the flame alive.

when Braindead won re-election. 2018 was the exception for a few Representatives, but that most of that was reversed today, with the exception of Cindy Axne and only by 1.5 points. But at its core, Iowa is a mostly rural state. Yes, you have Des Moines and suburbs, Cedar Rapids and suburbs, Iowa City, Waterloo and suburbs, and the Quad Cities, (but excluding Sioux City, which RationalWiki called the biggest trailer park in the whole Midwest, Dubuque, which is a conservative town, or Council Bluffs, which went hard for the GOP in this and the last election) but in every election, their votes get outnumbered and overwhelmed by votes coming from all the rural areas and small towns. Democratic candidates, like J.D. Scholten, have tried to go out into the rural areas, meet with voters, listen to them, address their concerns, etc., but even he couldn't win in a race against the most outspoken racist, white supremacist Nazi to ever hold a seat in Congress in modern times (Steve King - Good riddance to him). Meanwhile, Republicans have a lock on all the levers of power in Iowa and probably will for the foreseeable future and this situation won't change, unless Democrats figure out a way to break the hold that Fox News, talk radio, and conservative churches have on Iowa's rural and small town voters. So, to all of you DU readers who have given Iowa flyover country and this comment a passing glance, think VERY good thoughts for us Idiots Out Wandering Around.

I also point to Branstad as the one who put it together in Iowa. I think he has had a very good pate with Americans for Prosperity (Koch Brothers) and their head man in Iowa, Drew Klein. I refer to Klein as Branstad's minder. I think he is now Reynolds minder.


If it ever seems like Reynolds has no idea what she is doing (most of the time) she is just waiting for orders from Klein.

Oddly, credit for Iowa's recovery from the near Great Depression brought to his by Bushco is given to Brannstad and not Obama who should get credit. Culver should have been credited with keeping the state from cratering as badly as it could have.

that there are still enough voters who are stuck with the image of when Branstad was governor of Iowa in the 80s and 90s, back when Reagan democrats were a thing and when people would reach across the aisle and compromise to get things done-before our present dark days of hyper-partisanship and tribalism. It wasn't until after he got elected in 2010 when Branstad (and Grassley) hopped aboard the Tea Party Express. (Yes, Iowa went for Obama in 2008, but I think what boosted Branstad's chances majorly was the Iowa Supreme Court's decision that legalized gay marriage in Iowa and the passage of the ACA) And I've encountered plenty of voters when knocking on doors for the democrats that would say they were mostly voting for the democrats, but with Branstad or Reynolds as the only exception. The problem is, the GOP in Iowa, regardless of their reputation for so-called Iowa values, is just a bunch of amen-sayers and rubber stampers for the agenda of Trump and conservative Christian organizations, like Bob's Bigot Brigade over in Sioux City.