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| Professor Harold Hill, a/k/a The Music Man |
I have to admit that from the time that our current president became a candidate for president, in lighter moments, I identified him with the figure of "Professor" Harold Hill, a/k/a "The Music Man." The association just popped into my head. Meredith Wilsons's musical about "River City," Iowa was on the big screen when I was young, with Robert Preston in the title role. My mom took me to the (old) Page Theatre to see it. It turns out that contrary, skeptical Iowans* could be bamboozled by a fast-talkin' city-slicker. The good folks of River City were taken-in, but through the redeeming love of "Marian, madame librarian," Hill is reformed, and all ends well.
After three wives and innumerable mistresses and one-night stands, there's been no redemption of Trump. And so many Iowans were bamboozled again in 2016 with no happy ending in sight. (A shout-out to Iowa City and Johnson County for resisting the tide.) In the article below, Paul Krugman details how Iowa (and other) farmers have been fleeced. And while getting fleeced, mocked by the miscreants ("the whine cellar"). It's a sad and disturbing tale. Farming is hard, dangerous work, full of challenges and subject to Nature's whims as well as those of markets and governments. Farmers don't need more problems.
I do question whether Krugman's attribution of motives is accurate, however. PK overlooks that fact that Iowa was 2x carried by Obama, and voted for Al Gore in 2000. There are many Iowa voters (and others around the country) that voted for Obama and then turned around and voted for Trump. This is a turn-around that has perplexed me since the election. It could be we have different voters who turned out in each of those three elections, but that certainly can't account for the switch in the state-wide vote tally. And neither, obviously, can mere brand (party) loyalty explain the results. Most voters, I believe, claim to vote for "the candidate." I surmise that many of those votes that switched from Obama to Trump were protest votes; a desperate "why not?" attitude when Trump's opponent came to be identified with a status quo that has become increasingly difficult for rural and small-town voters. Let's hope for all our sakes that folks wake-up to the reality around us.
*"And we're so by God stubborn/ We could stand touchin' noses/ For a week at a time/ And never see eye-to-eye")
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