Bachmann Wins the Iowa Straw Poll

The now winner of what Jon Stewart noted as a tent contest, Michelle Bachmann has established herself as a viable candidate for the Republican Primaries. CNN has a data report available here.

Now, full disclosure, I am a pretty far left individual, but the point of this blog is to give fair coverage to both sides of the American discourse. The election of 2012 will be an obvious hotspot for every sort of discussion, but this straw poll may be a more interesting topic to talk about before everyone hops on to primary coverage.

In terms of political representation, Iowa is leftist in actual votes, but right in terms of representing parties. Fringe groups such as the Socialist Party in Iowa, while existing, have flawed websites and Acting State Directors positions unfilled. The left represents itself only in final voting power, but not in directing "true" left ideas. Votes will go democrat, but primarily in favor of moderacy over left ideals. Here is a chart with a breakdown since the Republican 80's:

Presidential elections results

Year	Republican	Democratic
2008	44.74% 677,508	54.04% 818,240
2004	49.92% 751,957	49.28% 741,898
2000	48.22% 634,373	48.60% 638,517
1996	39.92% 492,644	50.31% 620,258
1992	37.33% 504,890	43.35% 586,353
1988	44.8% 545,355	55.1% 670,557
1984	53.32% 703,088	45.97% 605,62

Source

Of these 7 elections, the democratic wins were only by slight margins in most years. Without going into history much farther back, we can see there is a reasonable percentage of alternative party votes, particularly in the 1988 elections. This is largely due to the populist politics of Dick Gephardt, who while running as a democrat, did inspire votes outside the conventional parties.

But back to Bachmann. There is a democratic trend in Iowa, so why place the grand importance there? Well, it's quite literally corn country, allowing Republicans to focus on a down home, American manufacturing image. This is a sin of any party, playing environment instead of hard politics, and an effective one. Being the first Republican caucus, Ames, Iowa recieves a grand business boost as the state-fair-esque tents begin to populate an otherwise small town. There is an economic incentive for Ames, despite Iowa's general Democratic leaning.

Why the success though? CNN, The Guardian, and Bachmann attribute it to social conservative principals and heavy tea party support [The Guardian Article]. Unsurprisingly, by making her move at the Republican Caucus, it implies Bachmann will not be running as a third-party Tea Party candidate, but rather focus on her involvement with them during the campaign and any potential congressional caucuses.

On a more general level, the Tea Party is gaining active power in both "down home" environments while also taking advantage of media. This dual power, combined with an idolization of free market capitalism and lessening of government involvement, implies that Tea Party individuals can very well spend campaign and government funds once in office to support themselves, claiming free market politics as an incentive. Bachmann's win is a well-played game, and one that personally terrifies me. This is a return to Reagonomics, without even the widely disregarded Laffer Curve to back it up. Media and power plays are taking over. Let's be sure we're looking at the economics of those issues in order to understand the new political climate.