Why Iowa Is Fertile Ground for Bernie Sanders

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/34715-why-iowa-is-fertile-ground-for-bernie-sanders

On the Saturday before Christmas, Sanders supporters all across Iowa hosted debate-watching parties in their homes. Among them were Melanie Beauchamp and her daughter, Madison, who live in Cedar Rapids, a city of about 130,000 in eastern Iowa.

Melanie, 42, caucused for Hillary Clinton in 2008. “I was younger and dumber, and I put electability ahead of belief,” she says. She also had a residual sense of loyalty, since Bill Clinton was the first president she voted for. At that caucus, “I was just flabbergasted when I saw the parade of Obama people come in,” Beauchamp says. Obama won a plurality of votes, which paved the way for his subsequent wins.

Beauchamp grew up in a small town near Waterloo, about an hour’s drive northwest of Cedar Rapids, and says that many of her family members are single-issue voters: They oppose abortion rights and always vote Republican. Growing up, “I didn’t know about a lot of this other stuff,” she says. Two of her priorities now are healthcare and human rights. “We need to look at each other as human beings,” she says. “We’ve been treating people as financial assets instead of human beings.” Reforming the criminal justice system is especially important to her. Beauchamp, who is white, says the past year’s racial conflict and Black Lives Matter movement played a role in her shift to the left and her support for Sanders. But a more important influence has been Madison, an 18-year-old senior at John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids.

Both Beauchamps will caucus for Sanders on February 1, and both are involved in other ways. Melanie has donated money—her first presidential campaign contribution—and Madison volunteers with the campaign, making phone calls, knocking on doors and helping with voter-registration drives.

Madison was excited about Clinton, but after Sanders announced his candidacy last spring, she began researching the candidates’ voting records. Sanders is “100 percent not a hypocrite,” she says. She believes that Sanders appeals to young people like her because he offers hope of taking back a system that shapes their future but has slipped beyond their control.

[swilton]

1. Great article!

[CharlotteVale]

2. K&R