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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2024

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  • Iowa.

    When I was a kid, our state essentially set the national standard for education and college readiness. While we were a deep purple state for a long time, the conservatives here were more of the balanced budget and family values variety.

    The last 30ish years of education defunding and media balkanization has had a colossal impact on the rural population here. Outside of the cities, I barely recognize it as my home state anymore. People are hateful, fearful, distrustful of outsiders, and paranoid. They wear hate like a badge of honor.

    I know this is happening in all of the rural states, but witnessing it firsthand has been pretty brutal.


  • Because the hoops they make you jump through to get one are fucking ridiculous.

    I’m a US citizen. I was a born here. I have a driver’s license and a US-issued passport. Both of these are current and I had to prove citizenship to get the passport.

    I’m still not able to legally vote in my state, though, because the law now requires that my driver’s license, which doesn’t expire for 4 years, have a Gold Star on it. No gold star, you can’t vote.

    I now have to make an appointment and drive to a licensing station in another city to get my Gold Star license in order to vote. I have to bring my still-valid passport, two pieces of mail, and a copy of my birth certificate. I can’t even vote in a primary if I don’t do that first.

    I was born here, I haven’t changed my name or moved, this is just the law now. They just really don’t want people to be able to vote.