A PURPLE- SPLIT PERSONALITY/ GRASSLEY-HARKIN/ dated material

Now that the 2012 campaign has started, this usually happens. A candidate or major national reporter gushes over how many times they have flown over Iowa, the purple state with a schizophrenic representation in Washington. Wow! That’s right Iowa can’t be confused with Ohio or Idaho. Further, we are schizophrenic. Why? Tom Harkin is a progressive Democrat and Chuck Grassley is a conservative Republican. Further, we are purple having a red Republican and a blue Democrat. You mix the colors together and you get purple. All of the above is useful, but wrong.

Wrong? Originally the Left was red and the conservative blue in Europe.

By the early 20th century here in the USA the colors were flipped, then flipped again, and the networks went bananas when color television was added. Finally, the late Tim Russert of NBC laid down the law in 2000. Blue is for the Dems and is Red for Republicans. Thus, Iowa is purple a mix between red and blue. We vote for candidates of both parties quite frequently. Russert, a beloved NBC reporter died during the same time of our flood of 2008.

When I was a kid, Red meant Left. Richard Nixon won a senate race over Helen Douglas, “the pink lady.” In other words, she was a commie because she knew communists. Pink meant you were really soft on Reds and you probably were one but Law enforcement could not prove it. So pink was a smear job. Senator Joe McCarthy started all of this and I lived through it. If you were a “Red”

that meant trouble. On the other hand, “Blue” did not mean much except for Blue movies that were seedy and shown in the tough part of town.

In high school, I could have been labeled a “Red” because I won a trip with 20 others from the Midwest, we went to Canada, New England, Washington D.C. (capitol, white house and the Red Embassy.) So it would be guilt by association.

Later when I got home, the postman wondered why I was getting SOVIET LIFE? I didn’t know except that I was registered as attending the Soviet embassy. The magazine was a spin job of how wonderful life in USSR was.

So Iowans remain purple, but the colors should be flipped again. Red is Left. Blue is Right. (It has been this way for hundreds of years and has a universal tie with the rest of the western world. Russert will be remembered for many other wonderful things. This includes an exclusive

news-interview on Sunday mornings.

No, we are not schizophrenics. We are split personalities that is if you want to mix the psychiatric labels with the political. How those two terms have been mixed up may be traced to the movies “Three Faces of Eve” or a “Beautiful Mind.” Both were box office hits.

Briefly, a ” schizophrenic” generally hears voices and sees images that do not exist. A “split personality” has two personalities or more.

So schizophrenics hear voices and see images that don’t exist. Split personalities have 2 or more personalities. The Harkin /Grassley division triggers the comment of schophrenia, when we really have (politically) split personalities. Got that? Now you know

who you are!

When someone from the outside world comes to see us as they do every four years just say “look I am an Iowan, not an Idahoan, or an Ohioan. Politically, we are “purple-split personalities.” I am fine. How are you? Today, I feel pretty good. What is your question? They look at you funny and you say well, you write the news and I am just trying to straighten things out for you. We aren’t schizophrenics, you got that wrong way back in journalism school. Schizophrenics see images and hear voices. They continue life with a longterm delusion. Split

personalities symbolize our two 2 very different senators. So folks should think of us as purple- split personalities. So I am fine. Which personality do you want to talk to?

So Iowa has been “red’ since 198O. WE HAVE BEEN RED SINCE PRESIDENT REAGAN.