What are people like in Iowa

[duster1979]

Originally Posted by attrapereves

Is there any reason why a lot of Iowa is liberal? Is it Chicago transplants, or has Iowa historically had a liberal Eastern part?

I've lived most of my life in western Illinois and eastern Iowa and have never considered this area to be particularly liberal (outside of Iowa City, that is).

A lot of counties in this part of the state tend to vote Democratic, but that has more to do with the historical union influence than any sort of idealism.

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by attrapereves

Interesting. It seems like Eastern Iowa, Southern MN, and Southern WI are mostly liberal, while the rest of the Midwest is conservative.

Southwestern and south central Iowa (with the exception of the packing house towns of Worthington and Austin) is very conservative. Eastern Iowa is quite liberal as everyone agrees. I'm curious why southern Wisconsin would be considered liberal. I'm not familiar with it being one way or the other, but to the best of my knowledge it's mostly small farm country other than Madison and Milwaukee.

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by jmgg

Southwestern and south central Iowa (with the exception of the packing house towns of Worthington and Austin) is very conservative. Eastern Iowa is quite liberal as everyone agrees. I'm curious why southern Wisconsin would be considered liberal. I'm not familiar with it being one way or the other, but to the best of my knowledge it's mostly small farm country other than Madison and Milwaukee.

It is a mixture of older guard Democrat voters due to the larger manufacturing presence in Wisconsin along with progressive Democrat voters. Also, southern Wisconsin is not that rural compared to other areas as the population density of most counties is quite a bit higher. Many small towns and cities have a fair number of jobs.

[Dport7674]

Originally Posted by attrapereves

Is there any reason why a lot of Iowa is liberal? Is it Chicago transplants, or has Iowa historically had a liberal Eastern part?

There needs to be another word that describes the average liberal in Iowa..They're a different breed than the Chicago/east coast liberals, and you can't even compare them to the west coast.

It's more of a blue collar democrat, middle of the road liberalism. A lot of 'You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone' types.

The libertarians could probably clean up in Iowa if they ever find a decent candidate.

[tollfree]

On average, the older generation in Iowa is very friendly, at least in terms of short conversation. The younger generation for whatever reason is not nearly as friendly, with some exceptions.

Iowa City is probably as liberal as Berkeley, at least on campus. Ames is not.

Des Moines is somewhat liberal, but there is a crowd there that wants the city to appear to be more liberal than it truly is.

[attrapereves]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

There needs to be another word that describes the average liberal in Iowa..They're a different breed than the Chicago/east coast liberals, and you can't even compare them to the west coast.

It's more of a blue collar democrat, middle of the road liberalism. A lot of 'You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone' types.

The libertarians could probably clean up in Iowa if they ever find a decent candidate.

I find both Democrats and Republicans in the Midwest to be fairly similar. They all have the 'You leave me alone, I'll leave you alone' mindset. Both are tolerable, in my opinion.

Down South is a different story...

[statisticsnerd]

I recently spent about a month in Cedar Rapids. Having travelled all over the U.S., I can say that the people I met in Iowa are some of the most genuinely friendly and down to Earth people I've come across. I live in Houston and yes people are friendly down here, but it is a fake friendliness. Iowa's great.