Do Rural Iowans Even Care About Themselves?

We can't even count on them to defend their own interests anymore. Citations Provided

A little over a year ago I wrote a piece called “America Needs Farmers, Just Not Their Politics” and it is probably one of my most read pieces that somewhat broke containment before I even had this space of my own to write. I felt like it was a worthwhile endeavor to check back in since that last one was written BEFORE the 2024 election. We’ve had a year to see how the active rural voting parts of our state alongside the big agricultural entities like the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Soybean Association will handle the increased turmoil in a Trump administration.

Iowa Soybean Association President Tom Adam (Photo by Joclyn Kuboushek/Iowa Soybean Association) Imagine if this dude cared about the future of all Iowa instead of landing a bailout every other election cycle

Maybe there would be a break in the rightward shift and a bit of self-reflection when it comes to water quality, air pollution, rural infrastructure, public schools, cancer rates, and healthcare access and its costs. Maybe we would see a bit of a pause in the narrative about rural folks seemingly placing culture war issues above the well being of themselves and their neighbors. Perhaps with the Trump administration there would be some kind of often-spoken-of “rebuke” to our trading partners, pushing dollars into the pockets of rural Iowa with tough trade deals and protectionist policies. We might even see some of those Big Ag entities held to account with a new sherriff in town standing up for the Little Guy!

Wishful thinking, all¹

Instead, we see republican candidates applauding discrimination against minority religious groups, a paltry drop in the bucket for food banks instead of funding SNAP benefits, more stern words about voluntary environmental compliance for farmers instead of action, and a lock step Iowa delegation absolutely opposed to any meaningful action on healthcare affordability and access.

We see more of the same.

Rather than an indignant and angry rural and republican voter base battering down doors of their representatives and senators, crashing social media with anger, or demanding more access to their leaders….we hear silence.

Strangely these small communities don’t seem to care that much once the spotlight isn’t on them anymore. Republicans were famously dodging public town halls earlier this year with angry voters confronting them at every turn across the country. The Iowa delegation’s solution? Small, private events with limited notice and availability, if they had them at all. Outright cancelling public appearances, daring their constituents to do anything about it. Rather than make this a huge deal for their republican leaders, the struggling rural voters seemingly went back to their social media, went back to football games, and waited for the next culture war issue.

Republican leadership dared their base to hold them accountable and their base blinked and walked away.

Republican voters are very much OK with extra judicial killings of civilians. They seem to be perfectly fine with the way things are going so long as it SEEMS like it isn’t impacting them. SNAP was cut and suddenly social media was filled with reasons why some kids just don’t need to eat as much. ICE started detaining and deporting nonviolent immigrants and even American citizens, and the silence in these communities remains deafening. Food and energy prices are increasing under the current republican federal and state leadership, and still, we hear them grumble about “socialism” in a city on the East coast, thousands of miles away.

Shoot, the Trump administration torpedoed soybean export deals with China², Iowa’s largest purchaser of soybeans, announced massive subsidies to agriculture from Argentina, LITERALLY torpedoes boats in the Caribbean (which constitutes a war crime),and rather than Republicans howling to the moon and back about their business being threatened and government overreach we get…..new propaganda institutions at the state Universities and new iterations of fear over DEI and “woke”.

Rural Iowa Voters

Where are the farmers? Where are the “shirt off your back” rural Iowa communities when it comes to helping their neighbors? Where are the “law and order” Iowans that care about due process and supporting veterans³? Where are hard working men and women who want a safe and healthy future for their children? Are they asleep? Are they not paying attention?

Or do they just not care?

Make no mistake on who can help fix the terrible leadership at the top in Iowa: it is rural republicans. These rural voters have an undue amount of power, sure, but they could actually use it for GOOD. They could demand their republican leadership show up to townhalls. They could clamor for advancing good bills that tackle issues like water quality, energy prices, cancer rates, infrastructure at the House and Senate instead of just assuming things won’t get done. Rather than just accept that costs will go up and healthcare premiums will massively increase, they could withhold support and votes until their leadership comes up with some kind of plan besides new ways to discriminate against citizens. They act as if it is some kind of negative external factor that “things will just get worse”, and now that Biden is out of the White House, rather than seeing all the rancor directed at him, we are instead met with silence⁴.

Strange, isn’t it?

Probably because of DEI or Woke, nothing to do with agriculture

We already know we don’t need their politics, they are toxic to the progress of our state. When rural Iowa controls politics, it drains our state of its young people, of its educated, of its workers. We get dogmatic thinking instead of evidence based solutions across the board. Whether it be how to manage our agriculture, how to structure our economy, how history and civics are taught, to actual religious dogma being used in place of the Constitutionally protected rights of Iowan citizens.

But these folks aren’t even standing up for themselves anymore.

If we don’t need farmers’ politics, but we get them anyway, and it kills the state and them right alongwith it….what are they even here for?

For more on water, please tune into “Whats Eating Iowa”, a docu-series by Art Cullen as well as read up Chris Jone’s substack The Swine Republic.

1. This article ignores the obvious and overt evidence that major republican figures, including Donald Trump are intentionally blocking investigations into sex trafficing and abuse crimes commited by those same figures. The fact that the “think of the children” people claim any semblence of high ground is fucking embarassing and worthy of nothing but contempt, but I’m focusing on mostly rural Iowa topics for this piece.

2. Only to once again provide a weak bailout to these voters just a day before this article was written. How strange that government handouts are OK for $12B for them, but investments in childhood education and nutrition is a bridge too far. These people are deeply immoral.

3. Veterans that have actually been deported despite being citizens with decorated military records

4. Never mind that Iowa has been dominated by Republicans for over a decade, there is literally nothing to blame Democrats for at this point at the state level. Not because they are wrong or have bad policy but because they haven’t had any control to enact anything.