Heartland voters fret about the future

DUBUQUE, Iowa – In a sun-dappled corner of the Dubuque Family Restaurant, coffee and conversation flow faster than the nearby Mississippi River. Nobody is pleased with the direction the country is taking.

“We’re struggling to keep our house,” says plumber Glen Naab, 53, his bright blue eyes clouding over. Others at his table complain about Iraq.

“You can’t tell who the enemy is over there,” says Steve Harris, 57, a Vietnam veteran hunched over his coffee like a bear guarding its cub. “I know that feeling.”

The table’s only Republican – his buddies are independents – frets about terrorism. “We’re bound to get hit soon, before the election,” says fireplace salesman Rick Stein, 61.

They talk and tease and argue over the same strong coffee at the same faux-wooden table in the same way, day after day – all without resolving a central question: Should Democrat John Kerry replace President Bush? Their disquiet is typical; American voters of all stripes share, if nothing else, a vague sense of unease.

“It’s hard to put my finger on it, but things are a mess in this country right now,” says Lewis Dowell, pulling off a John Deere hat and running his hands though his hair. The 60-year-old retiree adds, “I’m not sure if either guy can fix it.”

An Associated Press reporter and photographer logged 1,400 miles by car and 400 by air to size up the political landscape in the battleground states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas. The Mississippi River region is a barometer for the Nov. 2 elections, and the five states with 44 electoral votes have a recent history of close presidential races as well as diverse and rapidly shifting populations.

Judging by more than six dozen interviews, one element unites an otherwise polarized electorate – a perception that life in this unrivaled superpower is not quite right, that change is coming too fast and leaving too many people behind.

This is an anxious America.

Besides voicing concerns about the economy, Iraq and terrorism, voters spoke wistfully of simpler times – when children could play safely outside, fewer mothers had no choice but to work, television didn’t traffic in sexual innuendo, and every generation seemed destined to do better than the last.

Most Democrats blame Bush. Most Republicans stand by their president. Swing voters, a small but significant slice of the electorate, have yet to decide whether things are bad enough to warrant ousting a wartime president.

“For my generation, it’s harder to achieve the advantages our parents achieved,” said Bart Kintzinger, 42, a restaurant owner in Dubuque. He moved here recently from Atlanta, in search of a better quality of life and safer neighborhoods for his children.

“Life seems to be a little more manic” these days, he said. “I was telling my wife the other night, we need to back up and enjoy what we have, not to always be pushing for more.”

Kintzinger was buckling his infant son into a car seat. He was rushing to work. Business is good but could be better.

“If people don’t go out, they don’t eat. If they don’t eat … ,” the restaurateur said, his voice trailing off.

A recent AP-Ipsos-Public Affairs poll found that 57 percent of voters believe the nation is on the wrong track, a sign of trouble for the incumbent.

“These are not good times in many ways, both for people in their own lives as they worry about jobs and opportunities, and for the country – given the continued threat of terrorism, and Iraq,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center in Washington.

Bush is holding his own against Kerry in polls, Kohut said, because voters know little about the four-term Massachusetts senator and what they do know is mostly negative, due in large part to the president’s television ads.

Victory may go to the candidate who persuades voters he feels their pain – as Bill Clinton did in 1992 – or that he will wage a fight against it – as Bush did with terrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Nobody in Washington seems to really care or know what to do,” says Lucy Werenicz of Coon Rapids, Minn. Werenicz, who declined to give her age, just landed a new job after being out of work for six months, but money is tight.

“I’m worried about losing my house. I’m tired of worrying about it,” says Werenicz, who normally votes Democratic but has not made up her mind about this year’s election.

“I’m tired of worrying about my friends being out of work. I’m just tired, you know. This world makes you tired,” she says outside Oasis Market in suburban Minneapolis. “Neither one of these guys is going to make that go away.”

Tracy Tallent, 45, stepping out of YMCA in Dubuque, is a Bush supporter who nonetheless is worried about the nation. “Things are askew,” says the mother of four. “It’s hard to explain, but nothing feels quite right.”

She supports Bush’s efforts to limit gay rights and fight abortion, but those wedge issues only scratch the surface of her concerns. On this day, her anger is directed at the local cable company, which won’t let her block MTV. She doesn’t want her children watching racy videos.

“It’s not just politics. It’s the whole moral thing with me. I love this country and don’t want to see it disintegrate,” she said.

Kenny Ziegemeier, 58, manager of the American Legion post in St. Peters, Mo., bemoans the coarsening of American culture. It may sound petty, the independent voter says, but there’s a bigger problem afoot when swearing in public has become commonplace and children sit for hours in front of televisions.

“I’ve seen people change. I’ve seen the economy change. I’ve seen our nation’s security change,” says Ziegemeier, a white apron spread across his lanky frame. “It can’t be good.”

In Arkansas, Janet Lloyd, 45, of Conway says the job of parenting is made harder by politicians and business leaders who make bad examples of themselves with unethical or illegal behavior.

“It’s a hard world to be raising children in,” says Lloyd, who tends to vote Republican.

At the Dubuque diner, Dowell said his retirement check from John Deere is larger than the salaries of some workers who followed him into the company workforce. “That’s shocking and sad,” he said.

Naab, the plumber, says his adult children are struggling more than he ever did to raise families. “Both work long hours and find it tough just to make ends meet,” he says.

Harris, the veteran, says his generation had the option that one spouse, usually the wife, could stay at home and if they needed extra money or one parent lost a job, the other could go to work.

“Now if a family is barely surviving on two salaries, what happens when they lose one?” asks Stein, the Republican.

“The house goes back to the bank,” replies the plumber, mixing sarcasm with the day’s coffee. “Isn’t that the American way?”

Monday: Seeking to sway the shrinking number of swing voters.

Copyright ©2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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