Posted on 11/08/2012 12:00:03 PM PST by too much time
Land of farmers on the dole and insurance companies waiting to tap into Obamacare.
my Dad worked at Deere’s for over 30 years.
Iowa is no longer anything like the Iowa it was (and that outsiders think it still is). The "family farm" is now an agribusiness that is heavily subsidized by FedGov-- families may own them, but aside from a few remaining small farms (often dairy operations in the more rolling areas near waterways), they are fewer, larger and are definitely big business. The small towns that depended on having a lot of relatively close small family farms (each with many more children/hands in the old days) continue to die and become either bedroom communities, a collection of meth lab/Section 8 housed going to seed or semi-ghost towns with maybe an agriculture-related business or two, but that is about all... and those related businesses naturally depend on the farmers, so they are indirectly dependent on the government.
Except for the ag-related industries (the various Deere works and their vendors, etc), there isn't much left here for big employers other than insurance outfits in Des Moines and the local/county/state/federal government. Nowadays, many smaller communities offer only public sector jobs, jobs working for contractors who build/maintain government infrastructure (roads, schools, buildings, etc) or at the branch of a local bank. IOW, most jobs here actually revolve in some way around the government teat, and that makes it like a perpetual motion machine, in that it really doesn't - more factually, CAN'T - actually work without power from the outside.
I'm a lifelong, fourth-generation Iowan, and the Iowa I grew up in has been dead for around 30-odd years, but it took me a while to see that it was gone. Western Iowa sucks less than Eastern Iowa as a general thing, if only because Western Iowans are less likely to aspire towards being Chicago or Madison.
Mr. niteowl77
The big question is why do Republicans let a libtard state like Iowa kick pick the republican presidential nominee with their caucuses?
I lived in both states for about ten years.
Very nice people, hard working, often quite religious.
But there is a significant percentage that will not even consider voting for Republicans.
Exactly.
Iowa was settled predominately by German and Scandinavian (Norwegian and Swedish) settlers. Other groups of all nationalities are represented. But the vast majority are descendants of those two groups.
These are socialist leaning people by nature, and their offspring haven’t changed.
Throw most of Minnesota in that mix as the background as similar and the state is also known for welfare leniency and has a high ( 32000) population of Somailis
Check it out. http://newamericamedia.org/2011/11/state-somali-population-continues-to-grow.php
Minnesota’s Somali population is the largest in the United States. According to the latest estimates, other states that have a large Somali population are Ohio with 12,300, Washington with 9,300 and California with 7,500.
Too many ISU employees!
Most of rural Iowa is conservative. I’m in Dallas County. It’s part of the DSM metro, but much more conservative than DSM.
That is the BEST desciprion of Iowa that I have heard. You may want to throw in the in the 1940s ALL Big Cities and ALL small towns School Disticts conspired with the Iowa Legislature to KILL the One-Room Country School System.
Good overview. I’ve been away from my home state since ‘86. When ever I’m back for a visit, I have a hard time believing the changes...
Ethanol. Iowa is the largest producer of corn and corn related products. The state has sold its soul to the governments teats.
Q: “I don’t get it. Why is Iowa a democratic state?”
For the same reasons that Vermont is.
Both are overwhelmingly “white states” with little actual contact with non-Euros other than what they see on tv and in the other media.
I suggest you do a little research regarding sociologist Robert Putnam, who conducted some extensive studies and later documented them in a book entitled “Bowling Alone”.
Actually, just do this:
- Open a google search page (probably works with other search engines too)
- Enter the search string “diversity destroys trust harvard discovers homogeneity”
- The first three hits should provide you with a very interesting article about Mr. Putnam, his research, and his book.
After reading it, you may have the answer to your question above.
“I’m in Dallas County”
Too many Des Moines Employees.
Right after graduating from ISTC (which is now UNI), my mother was one of the last - of three or four, if I recall correctly - one-room schoolteachers in the state of Iowa... it would have been some time in the 1950s, but prior to 1955.
Both of my parents were public school teachers back in the days when local farmers and townspeople ran the boards and children were educated rather than indoctrinated; neither one wants to see any great-grandchildren in a public school system.
Mr. niteowl77
My mother also was a 90 day ISTC “wonder” one room coutry school teacher in 2 Coal Mining towns in C. Iowa(Logansport and Ridgeport). I think that if you follow the money(Property Taxes) we may find just why the One Room Coutry School System was killed off.
I don't really know, because it no longer makes any sense whatsoever. Aside from whining and making increasingly toothless threats, what is the worst the Iowa GOP could do if the Republicans pulled it from them? Hell, rotate the first caucus through the states actually carried in the last general election and give everyone a shot. The Iowa GOP would still get to urinate in the party's lemonade with their silly-assed Ames Straw Poll.
Mr. niteowl77
I thought that was their only product, other than a tourist site, rofl.
My mom became a school teacher at Cedar Falls back in the 1940s when it was strictly a teachers college. She taught at the May School, a one room school near Mystic, IA.
After marrying, bringing me into the world and living overseas for a decade, she went back and finished up her BA and MA at Kirksville, MO. She passed away in June 2011.
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