Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire perspective worth reading in the NYT by an Iowan liberal

Thought this was worth the read.......


So the state of Iowa might be in play in the 2020 election. But around here, conservative rural America isn’t in play and may never be. It will stand by Mr. Trump and will likely never vote for a Democrat.

A local Republican Party official and attorney tells me the Democrats are wasting time with impeachment, and that he’s sad that their party doesn’t have statesmen anymore “like Tip O’Neill, Evan Bayh and Ted Kennedy.” They have been replaced, he said, by lefties like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/...ing&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

Knoxville is about 40 miles from my hometown in south central Iowa. I would say the guy is pretty accurate in his assessment. I don't know where he got this "teddy Kennedy is a Statesman" bull$hit. Teddy was vermin and always will be. Mr. Trump is going to win rural Iowa. Unfortunately, there is Des Moines, Iowa city and Cedar Rapids and all of them government tit suckers to screw it up.

kwg

Not many have NYT subs. Could you cut and paste?

You do not want socialism or communism then vote republican.

Where the ‘Loony Libs’ Are Self-Destructing, Not Trump

To conservatives in this part of rural Iowa, the president is a beleaguered hero who is always Making America Great Again.

By Robert Leonard



KNOXVILLE, Iowa — To understand what many Iowans are thinking about President Trump and the impeachment investigation, first you have to know about Carson King.

During a recent Iowa-Iowa State football game, Mr. King, 24, held a sign requesting donations so he could buy more beer (specifically, Busch Light). To his surprise, the donations piled up. Given the amount, he decided to donate the funds — which ultimately totaled $3 million — to the University of Iowa’s children’s hospital.

Working on a profile of Mr. King, a reporter for The Des Moines Register discovered, in his social media history, a couple of racially inappropriate jokes from when he was 16. Mr. King publicly apologized before The Register had even printed the profile.

The episode produced a rare moment of unity among Iowans — against The Register. The backlash was harsh. For many people, the article reinforced a conservative trope: The liberal media was trying to bring a good man down.

Which is why I bring it up in the context of President Trump. It’s through the emotional lens of the King affair that many people in Iowa are viewing the Ukraine affair. As the dust has settled on the King kerfuffle but remains swirling around Mr. Trump’s troubles, many conservatives here think the “loony libs” are the ones self-destructing.

This area has been accurately described as Trump country — in 2016, twice as many residents in my county voted for him as for Hillary Clinton. It’s probably still Trump country, but his tariffs and the granting of renewable-fuel-standard waivers to large oil refineries have hammered the rural economy. Three ethanol plants in the state have closed, and most small farmers are hemorrhaging money. Even one of our Republican senators, Charles Grassley, says we have been mistreated. Mr. Trump’s farm bailouts have helped, but not enough.

So the state of Iowa might be in play in the 2020 election. But around here, conservative rural America isn’t in play and may never be. It will stand by Mr. Trump and will likely never vote for a Democrat.

A local Republican Party official and attorney tells me the Democrats are wasting time with impeachment, and that he’s sad that their party doesn’t have statesmen anymore “like Tip O’Neill, Evan Bayh and Ted Kennedy.” They have been replaced, he said, by lefties like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

At a coffee shop, a preachy Republican acquaintance I mostly try to avoid chortled as he lectured me about how Ms. Pelosi was handing Mr. Trump victory in 2020 and that all the Democrats have left is grandstanding. No policy. No ideas. They are “Communists out to destroy America.” He repeated the debunked notion on the right that Joe Biden is the real criminal, who as vice president withheld money from Ukraine until it stopped an investigation into a business his son was making millions of dollars from.

These types of narratives are common around here. They’re reinforced by Fox News. And “smear” or not, as Democrats call this one, they often stick. On this one, honestly, I share my conservative friends’ concerns, even if they have their facts wrong. Sure, Joe and Hunter Biden did nothing illegal, and Hunter was not a government official. Meanwhile, President Trump and his family have used the office of the president as an A.T.M., beyond his numerous moral and ethical failings.

But why would a Ukrainian gas company give Hunter Biden millions of dollars for a board seat in an industry he knew nothing about if they weren’t trying to curry favor with his father, the vice president? This is anthropology 101 — generalized reciprocity, where a gift of real value is made, with an expected return gift of uncertain or unspecified value at an undetermined time in the future. That we so easily accept this kind of payola to politicians is part of the reason it’s near-impossible to hold Mr. Trump accountable.

Anyway, fair or not, the Biden smear is certainly portrayed as truth on Fox News’s talk shows. Most of us around here seldom see that network’s news programs, which have been more evenhanded in their recent coverage of the president. When we get up in the morning to go to work, it’s “Fox & Friends” on the air. In the evening, by the time we are done wrangling kids and supper, it’s Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.

And the local culture goes much deeper than Fox News, which doesn’t create the reality of conservatives here so much as reinforce it. To my devout conservative neighbors, liberals are tearing America apart. Mr. Trump is the only conservative with the courage enough to stand up to their way.

They see the hand of God in this, and many truly believe he is the “chosen one.” To them, Democrats are amoral and spiritually empty. Where evangelical Republicans worship God and see Jesus as the only path to him, Democrats have banned Jesus from the public sphere at great cost to society and the potential salvation of millions.

To rural white conservatives, their culture is being rubbed out right before their eyes. Compared with that, Mr. Trump’s sins — Ukraine and all — are trivial, while the Democrats are unrepentant and persist in their wrongdoing.

So, yes, the dismal rural economy, brought on directly by the president’s actions, may prompt independents and some Republicans to vote for a Democrat, because they will see it in their economic interests to do so.

But most Republicans I know don’t vote in their economic self-interest. They vote in terms of what they perceive to be in their spiritual self-interest.

Which brings us back to the confluence of the Carson King brouhaha and the Trump impeachment narrative. For the conservatives here, they come from the same source, the media. Mr. King and Mr. Trump are both targets of a politically correct mob that is quick to judge and slow to forgive, so that the slightest deviation from an ever moving liberal moral standard can destroy a person’s career.

Carson King’s posts as a 16-year-old are nothing alongside Mr. Trump’s actions. But that doesn’t matter. Conservatives see the two cases as illustrating a pattern of misbehavior by liberals and the media.

Which, of course, plays into Mr. Trump’s “victim” mentality. Many in the conservative Christian right share this mentality, despite being among the most privileged people in the history of the planet.

In his own mind, and in the minds of many of my Republican friends here in this corner of Iowa, Mr. Trump can never be the fall guy. He’ll always be a beleaguered hero on a journey to Make America Great Again. And to many, God is with him.

Oh, and on a recent Saturday, courtesy of our Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, Iowa celebrated Carson King Day.

I don't believe anything from the lying MSM and especially the New York times and the Washington Post.

Read it. Wasnt worth it.
Smug like all libs.

When was the fact "debunked" that Biden used the threat that money eramarked as aid to Ukraine would be withheld unless the Ukrainians axed a certain prosecutor? Maybe Biden "debunked" it by saying it didn't happen? Or did it REALLY get debunked, and I missed it?

He repeated the debunked notion on the right that Joe Biden is the real criminal, who as vice president withheld money from Ukraine until it stopped an investigation into a business his son was making millions of dollars from.

The author is repeating progressive fascist lies. The Biden’s activities in Ukraine appear to be corrupt, but we need an investigation and tr ial to determine the truth.

When have the progressive fascists ever care about the truth when attacking Republicans? Reid lied about Romney’s taxes and they didn’t complain.

Biden bragged about successfully using the threat of withholding funds to get the investigation stopped. It's on video tape. I do not see the need for any further investigation.

The following are lieberal BS:
Sure, Joe and Hunter Biden did nothing illegal, and Hunter was not a government official. Meanwhile, President Trump and his family have used the office of the president as an A.T.M., beyond his numerous moral and ethical failings.

Meanwhile, President Trump and his family have used the office of the president as an A.T.M., beyond his numerous moral and ethical failings.

That we so easily accept this kind of payola to politicians is part of the reason it’s near-impossible to hold Mr. Trump accountable. Accountable for what?

Mr. Trump’s sins — Ukraine and all — are trivial, "Sins" we all have sins. Trump is Trump but no sins in the Ukraine that I know of, trivial or not.

But most Republicans I know don’t vote in their economic self-interest. They vote in terms of what they perceive to be in their spiritual self-interest.More of obama's cling to bibles and guns BS

Carson King’s posts as a 16-year-old are nothing alongside Mr. Trump’s actions. OMG!

Which, of course, plays into Mr. Trump’s “victim” mentality. Many in the conservative Christian right share this mentality, despite being among the most privileged people in the history of the planet.

In his own mind, and in the minds of many of my Republican friends here in this corner of Iowa, Mr. Trump can never be the fall guy. He’ll always be a beleaguered hero on a journey to Make America Great Again. And to many, God is with him.


Damned NYT! They have never been able to print the truth without an abundance of lies to circumvent it.

The writer gets it, but yet, he does not. At all. The stereotype of "Christian" killed the entire narrative. Gosh, the left is truly wired totally wrong.

Biden’s justification was“the prosecutor was corrupt” without any evidence to support his claim. We only have Biden’s word for this and as his son was being paid a huge amount for a job that he wasn’t qualified for a more likely explanation is corruption. I wonder how he can justify interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs.

The writer's conclusion is primarily correct, but his reasoning to get there is all kinds of haywire.

He obviously "isn't from around here." He does not understand conservatives, rural folk, or Christians.

What he does sense is that the majority of the country supports Trump and plans to vote for him in the 2020 election. He just does not understand why.

Sums it up.