I'm excited about the election in Iowa today

Dear Readers,

I'm really excited about the election in Iowa today. I hope Mitt Romney wins.

Ron Paul should do well, but he's crazy, so, even if he wins Iowa, he won't win America.

And according to recent polls, Rick Santorum should come in second or third or fourth place. Who knows, maybe he'll come in first. I actually really like Rick Santorum. I've wondered why he hasn't done well in the polls up until now. And he should do well in Iowa, because he's such a socially conservative guy and Iowans are such socially conservative people. A lot of small-town Protestant tea-party people don't trust Mitt Romney, but they like Rick Santorum. One problem with Rick, though, is that he hasn't had much scrutiny placed on him thus far. Not many pundits and reporters have placed much attention on him, because he was always near the bottom of the pack. Who knows what skeletons he has in his closet? Plus, Santorum might be too conservative to win the general election. And, he lost as an incumbent Senator in Pennsylvania, and that never looks good.

To me, Santorum seems like the latest anti-Romney. Romney's the inevitable Republican nominee, and I think that's great. Can we all just skip the primaries and go straight to the general election?

Wow, man, it's really happening... the election in Iowa.

I've never been to Iowa, but it sounds like a great place. Small towns, slaughterhouses, lots of hunting and fishing, farms farms farms, churches churches churches and corn fields. Of course, a lot of people are moving out of Iowa. For one reason or another, people are leaving small towns all over America, and congregating in cities. Look, I did it too. I live in a suburb of Phoenix. I blame the government for this population shift. I think the government killed the small family farm lifestyle with laws, regulations, the EPA, you know, uh... government people from San Francisco did it. And that's a shame, because rural people tend to be more conservative, and more conservative people tend to be... uh... right.

I just read this article from a liberal college professor in Iowa, talking about his fellow Iowans. He belittles the simple-mindedness that comes from what he calls a lack of diversity. He condescendingly talks about their love of NASCAR, pot-luck dinners, and Christianity.

Here's a quote from the article that lets you know where the author stands:

Whether a schizophrenic, economically-depressed, and some say, culturally-challenged state like Iowa should host the first grassroots referendum to determine who will be the next president isn't at issue.

And another quote:

After years and years of in-your-face religion, I decided to give what has become an annual lecture, in which I urge my students not to bid strangers "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Easter," "Have you gotten all your Christmas shopping done?" or "Are you going to the Easter egg hunt?" Such well-wishes are not appropriate for everyone, I tell my charges gently. A cheery "Happy holidays!" will suffice. Small potatoes, I know, but did everyone have to proclaim their Christianity so loud and clear?

I remember the same sort of cultured city-slicker attitude from one of my old college professors, Dr. Jean Boreen, in the English department at Northern Arizona University. She was from Iowa, I think. She came from a good Christian family, presumably with small-town Christian roots (It's difficult to be from Iowa and not be from a small town) but somewhere along the line she got really really liberal. She was a great teacher, to be sure. She knew her stuff and taught it well. Hers was one of the most challenging and rewarding classes, actually. But she also made it no secret that she loves gay marriage and the atheistic Golden Compass books and fighting AIDS in Africa via condom-dispensation and a host of other liberal causes.

But I got sidetracked. What I really wanted to tell you was that one time Dr. Boreen told us this story about when she was a high school English teacher in Iowa. She said there was a young man in her class who was horrible in English, who hated school, and who just wanted to be a farmer. Mrs. Boreen tried her darnedest to get him to learn, but alas, this young man just wanted to be a farmer like his daddy and his grand-daddy. He didn't want to be inside no school-house reading no books. He wanted to be outside a-huntin' and a-fishin' or a-whomp-whomp-whompin' in a big ol' John Deere tractor-machine!

Well, eventually Mrs. Boreen had to learn that it was impossible to reach every kid. Some kids just don't want to be in school, and you can't agonize over it. There are a bunch of other kids in your class who need a teacher's care and attention. So the boy dropped out of school and became a farmer. And it broke Mrs. Boreen's heart that her dramatic read-alouds, lively lectures, and intriguing grammar worksheets couldn't get this kid to like English. End of story.

And really, who turned out better, the farmer boy, or Dr. Boreen?

Who says that education is all it's cracked up to be? Who says that everyone ought to stay in school? If my daughter wanted to drop out of school and become a farmer, well, I'd probably say that's fine. Really. I mean, as long as she could read and write at a high-school level, and do a little bit of arithmetic, and had the discipline to pursue her interests, well, what's the problem with that? The world needs farmers, and if you're happy farming, well then go ahead and farm!

I would also emphasize to my daughter, if she wanted to drop out of school, that it's more important to be good than it is to be educated.

But Dr. Boreen had such a condescending attitude about the young man who just wanted to be a farmer. The high road, the noble path, in Dr. Boreen's mind, was to be a bookworm, a teacher-pleaser, a liberal, a college student, a teacher, or maybe an Occupy Wall Street protestor, and maybe even eventually the creme-d-la-creme, a college professor.

So, Iowans, I tip my hat to you. You are a part of America, you are the heart of America, and you have just as much right to voice your opinion as the folks who write the newspapers in the coastal cities. Don't let liberal college professors stop you from being you. Keep on slaughtering those cows, keep on growing that corn, keep on going to church, and keep your rural way of life going as best you can.

Oh, and vote for Mitt Romney.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa