Iowa has become a petri-dish of Republican radicalism

When Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina, stepped onto a stage at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 15th, his first topic was how brilliant the woman interviewing him was. That was Kim Reynolds, the state’s Republican governor, who this year has stolen the limelight from the Des Moines Register, which traditionally has given visiting politicians a literal soapbox at the fair, by hosting her own series of interviews with Republican candidates for president. “When your governor passes monumental school choice…it gets my attention. And frankly, I celebrate her success,” said Mr Scott, as Ms Reynolds, dressed in cowboy boots, beamed out at the crowd. “Education is the closest thing to magic,” he went on. And “no state is doing it better” than Iowa.