By Dr. Harold Pease
Michele Bachmann was winner of the Iowa Straw Vote held August 13 with 29% of the vote. In a close second, just 152 votes behind her, was Ron Paul at 28%–together that totals 57%. The significance of this cannot be over-stated as the two are the only Tea Party Presidential candidates in the race and as such a significant majority of Iowans voted for the Tea Party philosophy. Will the establishment media notice this story and give adequate credit to the Tea Party Patriot influence? I am writing this the day of the straw vote. You will be able to answer that question for yourself when this column is published next week in your newspaper, but let me predict the answer. Not likely!!
Iowa is the first hard evidence, in an election year, of where the nation is politically and it appears to be overwhelmingly in favor of Tea Party Patriot core values: limited Constitutional government, the free market, and fiscal responsibility—themes consistently emphasized by Bachmann and Paul. Polls are not hard evidence as they are too subject to who is polled and how questions are phrased so should not be given the same level of credibility.
Media selected, front runner, Mitt Romney, who clearly did not get the kind of applause that Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich did in the Presidential debate held just two days before, only got 3%; an extremely low number for their favorite not likely to be emphasized by the major media. Were it anyone else he/she would be moved to the bottom of the stack until he/she proved himself/herself again elsewhere—perhaps in New Hampshire this winter. Rick Perry, announcing on the same day as the Iowa straw vote, and not campaigning at all in the state, received more votes than Mitt Romney. Based upon this Bachmann and Paul are the only real front-runners but the numbers are too close to give either of them a decisive victory over the other so media coverage of each should be somewhat equal.
Only once has the Iowa straw vote actually picked the eventual winner but it does give the winner more exposure and the spotlight for a time—unless, of course, you are Ron Paul who consistently and unfairly gets downplayed. Will the establishment media undermine or belittle this win, and Paul’s near victory (short by only 152 votes), as they already have the applause factor—he did get louder and more frequent applause than any other candidate? Based upon how he was treated in the last presidential election. Yes!! This is an excellent example of how the media guide us in our thinking. That is why in political science we teach that the first election is the media’s.
Although the media have never understood or fully acknowledged the significance of the anger of the American people to excessive government and uncontrolled spending as exemplified by the approximately 2400 Tea Party gatherings held throughout the United States in the year 2009, the people have and this anger is apparently alive and well in the Mid-West. Falsely characterized as “Astroturf,” then “mobsters,” then “racists,” and, more recently by the Vice President as “terrorists,” has not deterred Tea Party followers but rather hardened these “political unseasoned ‘mom’ operations with homemade signs.” They have come to know that the core values they endorse are at the very heart of freedom and the Constitution and must be preserved.
Anything could still happen in the weeks ahead as the actual vote comes this winter in New Hampshire then in South Carolina, but the race has begun with a clear cut win for the Tea Party Patriots. Unless the media successfully vilify, undermine, or discredit them a sizable hurricane in the political world may follow. Certainly the establishment media did not see this one coming, especially not just out of the shoot, so to speak, as was the case in Iowa.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 25 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.