Keller @ Large: Iowa Exposes Country's Deep Political Divisions
DES MOINES, Iowa (CBS) - It's easy to make fun of the Iowa caucuses.
They provide the smallest and whitest voter sample of any state in the presidential nominating process.
And when any group of voters sits through months of debates, speeches, meet-and-greets, ads, and other costly forms of political outreach, but still can't really make up their minds at the end of it, it's tempting to sit back and say oh, what a bunch of rubes.
But this year at least, that would be wrong.
Keller @ Large: Disappointing Win For Romney
Iowa Republican caucus voters last night told us a lot about themselves and our country that was honest and very much worth listening to.
For starters, the Iowa vote reflected what we already knew – that when it comes to politics, our country is profoundly divided, and the divisions seems to be getting deeper as time goes on.
You don't need me to tell you about the yawning gulf between left and right, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans.
That strife is worse and more corrosive than ever.
But how about the divisions exposed last night within the supposedly homogenous state of Iowa itself?
Romney won some of the more affluent cities, Des Moines, Dubuque and Davenport.
But Santorum won the rural vote, and Ron Paul did well among young and blue-collar voters.
Romney and Santorum split the Republican vote between them; evangelical Christians told Romney to take a hike.
Even worse than all those demographic divisions are the signs of apathy, cynicism and despair.
The candidates all ran around claiming this was the most important election of our lifetimes, but Iowa voters disagreed, and failed to turn out in the predicted numbers.
Even among those who did turn out, voter indecision and skepticism was rampant, a fact reflected in the split vote.
The heartland is heartsick over where we are and hesitant to rally behind yet another political messiah.
And who can blame them?
It'll be up to our political elites to use this campaign to restore some sense of confidence and unity.
And who among us – in Iowa or elsewhere - is brimming with confidence that they can do it?
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
