The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Typically I try not to overplay the hokey let’s-fawn-over-the-good-rural-stock stories that come out of Iowa and New Hampshire every four years, particularly since I grew up in the Granite State and, while fully recognizing we have a fundamentally better state government than most other states (no sales or income tax, no seatbelt laws), as people our day to day lives are not that different. (You’ll not hear any joyous four a.m. cow milking stories from me.) When that maniac recently took over Hillary Clinton’s office in my hometown, I couldn’t believe the baloney the national media wrote about the place. The coverage was seriously like a script synopsis for Funny Farm. I love the insane place, but Mayberry North it ain’t.

That said, I really appreciated an editorial I read in one of northeastern Iowa’s local papers, The Gazette, this morning entitled, “Be Iowa Polite,” asking locals to “have some patience when someone rings your phone during this frenetic presidential caucus season to ask you what’s on your mind.” Now, I don't know about Iowa, but in New Hampshire complaining about political phone calls is like talking about the weather: It’s a given. It's what you do. Yet here, while acknowledging polling and candidate calls “can be annoying,” the editorial reminds readers that “every four years, the nation tunes in to find out what Iowans think. Our opinion has a heavy bearing on one of the world’s most critical decisions.”

And more:

So when the phone rings, take a deep breath. If the caller on the other end wants to know whom you support, what issues are important to you, whether you plan to attend a caucus, tell the caller. Be Iowa polite. Chances are the caller will be brief.

Maybe this is just one goody-two-shoes editorial writer going off here, but it’s nice to see, with all the contention over which state should go first and why, someone from one of those states acknowledge the privileged place in American political life they currently hold.

topics:
Hillary Clinton, Law