Winning rural voters is not so mysterious

Those with high hopes for a two-party system in Iowa must put their minds and means on reaching rural voters.

We had a balanced government a decade ago, before shelled-out river towns went irrevocably red and reactionary from sheer abandonment.

A lot of people have answers. After 46 years of reporting from Northwest Iowa, all I can muster are questions.

Why would you threaten immigrants when your town is depopulating?

Do you really think you can eliminate income taxes and maintain rural schools?

Are you satisfied with toxic rivers?

They are complicated questions simply put.

Government hasn’t done much to improve things if your perspective is 30 miles from anywhere. The roads are bad. The school closed. Put a jar on the counter at Dollar General if you get sick because health insurance is outta sight. Taxes sure seem high for what you get. Input costs keep going up and so does the rent.

So you say you have an answer. You say you used to live there among the deplorables, and that some might be related? And you own farmland there and talk to people. You think if we talk about what the real issue is — we can barely make ends meet in the richest place on Earth — that Iowa loses.

Yes, stupid, it is the economy. It hasn’t been right here since 1980, which is about the time the great drain developed in Iowa. Freedom to Farm, bust the union and all that. The government closed the job center office, so you might as well move to Ankeny where the future reposes alongside the freeway mixmaster.

Those who didn’t bail out during the Farm Crisis or NAFTA or the consolidation of the livestock sector or the 2008 crash, we have the scars to show as the rest of the country moved forward and we stood pat to take a beating.

I’ve lived in Steve King Country my whole life. I get it, the populism. We are suspicious of big corporations. The gubmint. Outsiders. We don’t like your eminent domain. We don’t like people from the city telling us how it should be out here where the coyotes eat your cats or other unarmed creatures.

We part ways over immigrants — the fear is that they steal our birthright, when the reality is that they make Storm Lake vibrant. Cutting income taxes is fine so long as small-town schools can keep the lights on and property taxes stay in check. Small-town people worry about and vote for clean water in strong majorities. Storm Lake bonded at 70% voter approval for lake restoration. People in Varina are willing to pay for reverse osmosis water and peace of mind. We are not completely unreasonable.

When there is only one show in town, you pull up a seat. Barack Obama hauled young people to the Storm Lake polls in buses when Buena Vista County voted for Democrats. Those wheels long since rolled on. Latinos sat home when Kamala Harris was on the ballot. Nobody asked them for their vote.

So many rural voters who are not whack jobs just gave up. They don’t even register, because they think it doesn’t matter, nothing really changes. There are 1,647 registered but inactive voters in Buena Vista County. That amounts to 15% of all registered voters. There are thousands more eligible to vote who don’t bother to register. Que sera.

Someone should talk to them. Some try. Three Democrats with barely a nickel to rub between them are running for the Fourth District congressional nomination. It’s quixotic, but they could gin up enough enthusiasm to help Rob Sand overcome a steep deficit of registered Democrats compared to Republicans in the open race for governor.

Catelin Drey flipped a Sioux City Senate district from red to blue in a special election last year. Her issue, of course, was affordability. Child care. Food. Heat. The basics. Simple stuff. Pro-labor, pro-family, pro-fairness, pro-independence. It sells in one of those disaffected river towns. Add pro-farmer and you’re talking turkey in many rural counties forsaken as lost forever.

A few percentage points in Northwest Iowa could pull the state off a disaster course and back onto a moderate path of prosperity for all. The For All part is especially important, because people who live along gravel ruts often feel forgotten by the road grader. Steve King understood that as well as anyone. That’s how the immigrant thing got legs — looks like they get food stamps while I get the shaft.

Then Trump fritters away soybean exports, disrespects renewable energy, starts stupid wars, raises health insurance premiums and sends phosphorous prices through the roof. Yeah, we’re listening but the brute has us by the private parts. Come on out here, lend a hand and speak some sense. You peel off a few votes where the tall weeds grow and you might restore two-party democracy to Iowa. That’s huge. Catelin Drey is no mirage. She married into the Early clan of Dreys. We’re talking rural. It’s about the economy, and showing up.