Sir, – Your Editorial (January 3rd) starts: “Overwhelmingly white, 60 per cent born again or evangelical Christians and heavily rural, the 100,000 or so Iowans who will vote in tonight’s Republican caucuses are hardly representative of the American electorate.”
Even when the sentiment is meant to reflect one half of the political divide; painting Iowans with such a nuance-free stroke fails to capture the nature of a state that voted Democrat in five of the previous six US presidential elections and three of the last four elections for its governor. It glosses over how nearly 60 per cent of Iowa’s population live in cities and how it is the only state without a coast to have legalised gay marriage. It also wrongly implies that Christians in Iowa have a very narrow set of policy concerns.
As someone with strong ties to Iowa, I believe that while no American state will wholly represent the broader union, Iowans this electoral cycle have been very well placed to vet candidates looking to lead America in a strong economic recovery. Consider the nation compared to the state. US unemployment is 8.6 per cent and the total federal debt is approximately $15 trillion in an economy where oil prices continue to rise. While, Iowa’s unemployment rate is 5.7 per cent, the 2011 state budget was in surplus and it produces a higher percentage of its electricity from wind turbines than any other state in the US.
The low cost of doing business in Iowa coupled with the community’s desire to scrutinise candidates up-close means that irrespective of the results of the caucus; candidates are unlikely to say that they have not been given a opportunity to comprehensively articulate their views via local media or organised events. Equally, observers from outside Iowa are unlikely to say that they do not know the candidates better after the Caucus than they did before. This is the value of the Iowa caucus. – Yours, etc,