'Way Out of Line: Iowa Voters Rethink Support for Steve King

[elleng]

ORANGE CITY, Iowa — A year ago, Evan Wielenga, 40, believed — as does his congressman, Steve King — that undocumented immigrants should all be deported. They broke the law to enter the country. They spoke little English. They strained schools and public services.

But as talk of a border wall and a Muslim ban overtook the presidential campaign, Mr. Wielenga, the agronomy manager of a farmers’ co-op here in northwestern Iowa, had a change of heart.

He heard dairy farmers say they couldn’t get their cows milked without immigrants. “You can put an ad in the paper and you won’t get two white guys to apply,” said Mr. Wielenga, who grew up on a dairy farm himself.

He heard of the ruinous damage an immigration raid had done to families. “Some of these kids were born in the U.S.,” he said. “These families had lived here 10 years, and all of a sudden, Dad’s gone, Mom’s gone. When you think of it from that perspective, what’s the lesser of two evils?”

Mr. King, a Republican who has displayed a Confederate battle flag on his desk in Washington, shows no sign of budging in his views. His latest anti-immigrant tirade — “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” he said — once again drew wide condemnation and critical attention to Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District, whose voters overwhelmingly re-elected him to an eighth term in November.

Sioux County, Mr. Wielenga’s home, provided the largest margin in the 39-county district, Iowa’s most conservative. And there is no shortage of voters who echo Mr. King’s contention that “culture and demographics are our destiny,” as he said earlier this month to cheers from white supremacists.

But in conversations over four days with residents who voted for Mr. King, a new chorus of earnest naysayers could also be heard in many corners of the district. Some said the congressman’s latest provocation — uttered in support of a far-right Dutch politician — was finally more than they could brook. Several said they were rethinking their support.

“I’ve always voted for him, but I think this was way out of line,” said Bill Kooi, a retired farmer, sipping coffee at a Hardees in Orange City, as the friends who shared his table — to a man, older white conservatives — all nodded.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/us/steve-king-iowa-immigration.html?

[JHan]

1. vote him out Iowa , come on!

[LoisB]

2. You know what to do, Iowa.

[guillaumeb]

3. Sioux County?

A reference to those non-whites who suffered genocide at the hands of whites. What an ironic name for the County, and these oblivious beneficiaries of that genocide.

Are these conservative farmers worried about the racism, or worried about not being able to pay low wages to non-citizens?

[GWC58]

4. Hopefully, come November 2018,

those Iowa voters will use their brains and not their reflexes, reflexively always voting for that ignoramus. Stevev King is a joke, a not very funny joke!

[egold2604]

9. Come November 2018, they will be bankrupt because they can't get help

[guillaumeb]

10. And the business model that relies on low paid undocumented workers

is a plantation type business.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. You gave the right answer

in your second paragraph. Know the area,and wow,that is so right on. You will find more Confederate flags in that County than most of Alabama.

[GWC58]

12. Iowa, I believe

sent many soldiers to the south fighting for the Union. Different times, I guess. Former GA Congressman Paul Broun called the Civil War "the war of northern aggression." This coming from a, then, U.S. Congressman.

[GulfCoast66]

5. That son of a bitch had a confederate flag on his desk?

As a southerner whose ancestors fought for the wrong side of that war I know that the boys from Iowa did perhaps more than soldiers from any other state to ensure a union victory. Those midwestern boys were the ones who were tougher than the southern ones when going got tough. The southern farm boys thought they could handle the wilderness better than the city folks from the east. And often times they could. But it was the midwesterners that one that war.

Of course, the soldiers from New England would argue with my assessment. Especially at Little round top.

Whoever runs against them should bring the fact up and point out that he is dishonoring their ancestors who died in that war.

I can actually understand the perverse logic that allows a southern descendent of Confederate soldiers to feel that attraction to that flag. For a northerner or midwesterner to do so is unquestionably Proud racism.

[NewRedDawn]

11. I am from rural upstate Ny.

And I had a Great Great Uncle die the first day of Gettysburg Part of the 97th NY. Conkling's Rifle brigade that over ran & captured Iverson's Brigade. A year before that; my Great Great Grandfather & his two sons all wounded at Antietam.
I despise the Confederacy & the supporters today North & South. Here in upstate NY I see these dumb redneck mother fuckers with confederate flags on them & it makes my blood boil!

[white_wolf]

13. WHY?!

I don't get why people from northern states fly that flag. They can't even fall back on the lame ass "heritage not hate" BS because their heritage is fighting against that traitorous hateful flag.

[DefenseLawyer]

6. The fact that undocumented workers are a source of cheap labor on dairy farms

Should not be the reason one opposes mass deportations and a racist buffoon like Steve King.

[Golden Raisin]

7. Talk is cheap. Let's see if Iowans

actually vote him out.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. A lot of these folks voted for people like King

and Drumpf strictly for one primordial reason - they "look like them". The "policy things" were considered "talk" and something to cheer about but they felt none of it impacted them because of who promised these "policy things"... with the assumption they would be "looked after".

They are now waking up to the nightmare that their mob reaction at the polls, which was a result of their mob mentality, has brought forth.