Iowa Republican Voters are Delusional
The Iowa caucuses – the official start of the 2024 presidential election season – are just four days away. On Monday, voters in Iowa get to vote for the Republican candidate they think is best to run the country.
Based on an article in The New York Times, I think we should ban Iowa from ever voting again. At least ban Republicans from voting. Because they are delusional.
God help us all.
In an article headlined “Will You Vote for Trump Again?”, the paper sent its reporter out to check the sentiment of the Iowa voter. Apparently, it thinks that Iowa is representative of the entire country. Why else would the media spend so much time writing about the delusions of Midwest Republicans?
By the way, I’m not holding my breath waiting for The Times to publish “Will You Vote for Biden Again?” You know that will never happen. Because he’s too old, you know. And the best economy in probably the last 100 years isn’t that good. And after four years of winning, we need a change.
Anyway, back to the delusional Republicans in Iowa.
According to The Times, Iowa Republicans are conflicted about Trump. On the one hand, there’s his “divisive and combative” brand of politics. On the other, there’s the “worries about high prices and high interest rates, concerns about divisions and morality, a deep skepticism about the justice system and the news media.”
The paper spoke to “nearly two dozen” skeptical about the news media Americans about Trump and the other Republican candidates. What they had to say will make you laugh and cry at the same time.
According to John-Charles Fish, a 45-year-old who works in marketing, “The alternatives don’t seem appealing. Things were better with [Trump] in office than they are now. That’s what keeps me hanging in.”
Really? Things were better under Trump?
The Times tells us that Mr. Fish spends his time “toggling” between CNN and Fox News. Also, he voted for President Obama twice. And Donald Trump twice.
Then there’s 24-year-old Emilia Sanchez, who gets her news from TikTok and Reddit, and has all the Republican talking points down.
“She worries about crime now, more than she did when Mr. Trump was president. More than anything, she worries about the southern border, which she calls ‘wide open,’ and said she was particularly anxious about people coming in who ‘are not for America.’ ", The Times notes.
Then there are the Iowa Evangelicals, who seem to be souring on Trump and throwing their lot in with Ron DeSantis.
Shannon Demastus, a 53-year-old grandmother and wife of an evangelical pastor, likes Ron DeSantis, mainly because of his wife Casey. She’s a “strong woman and strong mama,” Mrs. Demastus told The Times.
“Strong character is not that they will never screw up, I believe that we are all sinners, but just to have somebody who doesn’t do immoral things,” Demastus said, adding that she believed a vote for Ron DeSantis represented “the word of God.”
That’s an actual quote. She really believes that Ron Desantis is God’s chosen candidate. That would probably be news to Donald Trump.
She also believes DeSantis will not do immoral things, which presumably means that Trump has done those things. She’s correct about that at least.
But DeSantis is not immoral? Planning the mass deportation of immigrants. Making life hell for LGBTQ Floridians. Banning books.
Tell me again how DeSantis is God’s chosen candidate.
Probably the most delusional voter in Iowa is 72-year-old retiree Danny Robertson, who oversees his local caucus. Mr. Robertson is backing Ron DeSantis because, as The Times notes, “he became taken with [DeSantis] after meeting him a couple of times in person.”
Robertson thinks government spending is out of control and that Ron DeSantis will reign in spending as president. He also thinks there are too many “career bureaucrats” in Washington and that DeSantis will fire a lot of them.
While he won’t support Trump during the caucus, Robertson said that if he becomes the nominee, that would “be just fine.”
“Every time we’ve had a Republican in office, we’ve done better as a country — my pay went up and my investments went up,” he said. “I want less government. I want us to be doing better than China.”
Mr. Robertson seems not to be aware that since World War II, the economy has done better under every Democratic president than every Republican president.
This is the type of delusion that is running rampant among Republicans in Iowa. But it’s not just Iowa. A lot of Republicans feel the same way about the upcoming election.
It’s scary. And it’s very, very sad.