Iowa is poised to be first in the nation — again!

My little state of Iowa has played a pivotal role in shaping national politics for decades. It began in 1976 with the Iowa caucuses, where many viewed Ronald Reagan as a washed-up politician. Yet the former California governor challenged a sitting president in the state’s first-ever caucus, setting off political reverberations that reshaped the Republican Party and American politics.

That same year, a little-known Georgia governor, Jimmy Carter, pulled off a major upset in Iowa, launching his path to the presidency. Decades later, Barack Obama’s road to the White House likely would have ended if he hadn’t defeated Hillary Clinton in the Hawkeye State. Iowa also made history by becoming the first state to remove three Supreme Court justices in a retention election, rejecting their ruling on same-sex marriage and striking a blow against the canard of judicial supremacy.

The gloves are off, and lawmakers are being reminded that what may have been a safe election in the past might not stay that way in the future.

Now, with fewer than 4 million residents, Iowa again has a chance to shift the nation’s political direction. This week, the Iowa legislature is poised to make it the first state to strip gender identity protections from its civil rights code. And you can bet if this happens in Iowa, the impact will extend far beyond our borders, shaping the national political debate for years to come.

“It’s pretty simple,” said Chuck Hurley, vice president and chief legal counsel for the Family Leader family policy center. “A male is a man; a female is a woman. Gender identity, which was put into the Iowa Civil Rights Code in 2007, 18 years ago, has been a pathetic mistake. It’s allowed men into women’s spaces. It’s forced taxpayers to spend several million dollars on mutilating healthy body parts of people.”

So in a state where Democrats are vastly outnumbered and with President Donald Trump providing more cover than ever before on this issue by slaying Maine’s governor for her trans madness in broad daylight last week, why worry? Well, for the same reason as always: feckless Republicans.

“We already had two Republicans who have gone on the record in opposition to the bill,” said Josiah Oleson, the Family Leader’s elections director. “What’s interesting is you would expect that those Republicans would come from a weak suburban seat that is going to be a tough re-election. But the two who have actually bailed both come from pretty Republican seats that voted for Trump by heavy margins this last fall.”

“So you’re left with the option that they might actually believe this ideology, which is just ridiculous,” Oleson continued. “One of the legislators in the statement he put out in opposition to the bill said that he was afraid that if we didn’t allow people to put their preferred gender on their birth certificate that it might be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”

Imagine the reaction if someone had made this argument about gender just a few decades ago — let alone in the 19th century. Anyone pushing such a position now should resign from the legislature out of shame.

Fortunately for supporters of the bill, Hurley and Oleson believe there aren’t enough opponents to block its passage. But they also know how quickly fear can spread, so they’re taking no chances. The gloves are off, and lawmakers are being reminded that what may have been a safe election in the past might not stay that way in the future.

“Looking at the legislators we’re concerned about, all but one or two of them didn’t even have a primary opponent when they ran this last time,” Oleson said. “But we’re talking about a fundamental issue here that if we can’t agree that a man is a man and a woman is a woman in the conservative movement, then what are we even doing here?”

Hurley added that in his 35 years fighting for legislation at the Iowa Capitol, one of the biggest problems Republicans have always had is “the people who run for office just because they want to be liked and they get in there and they realize, ‘Uh-oh, we’ve got a very polarized culture. Not everybody likes me any more.’”

Do they really not understand that calling themselves Republicans won’t win them votes from the transgender mob? Well, let’s make darn sure this time that we make them understand. While I’d like to believe strong arguments alone could accomplish that, my experience in broadcasting has shown me that sunlight is the best medicine for the nicer-than-God Republican when he is about to do something really stupid.

Every Iowan should take note of which legislators refuse to act in the wake of the recent federal election landslide. Voters in states like Arizona, Alabama, and South Carolina will be watching to see how Iowa leads with unapologetic clarity and conviction.

As I said before, Iowa has long set national trends, for better or worse. But now, as we debate fundamental issues of reality and decency, we cannot afford to falter. Iowa must lead.