Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Latest Scientific Poll from Iowa

Just back from a nice road trip with my brother.  Three days of wandering about Iowa watching minor league baseball and scouting out various historic oddities.

When we crossed the Iowa state line we started looking for evidence of the political furor said to be roiling the state.  Surely we would see legions of Angry Voters toting signs backing The Donald or Red Bernie....

Ah, no.  The sum total of all political activity we observed (and winner of the first ever Det of Emp straw poll!) was two signs for novelty candidate Dr. Ben Carson.

Look, Iowa is not what you see in the traditional media or read about in the chattering sections of the Internet.  Yes, you see lots of corn, lots of churches, probably a few more American flags per capita than some places.  You also find that most small towns have Mexican groceries and in one place we even encountered a large Somali community.  Odd to see tall, east African folks walking down the Norman Rockwell streets of Postville Iowa in flowing robes and with traditional head coverings.  I half expected some of them to be wearing Seed Company hats.

But Iowans of all pigments that we encountered were unfailingly polite, friendly and seemed absolutely uninterested in politics.


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