Iowa’s spotlight is “nothing” but a four-year cycle when politicians are forced to temporarily interrupt the comfort that Washington offers and are subjected to the sway the corny state holds to the polls. Political analysts will readily demonstrate the tempo Iowa sets in the making and felling of presidents. The storied Iowa caucuses have gone a long way to woo voters of either party into picking a choice. Winning Iowa remains not only strategic, but a near indicator of good tidings for a presidential hopeful.

President Barack Obama has attributed his 2008 victory to Iowa. And Iowa has shaped numerous other successes before Obama, yet most people — even the very politicians who come calling — still refuse to recognize Iowa’s greatness beyond the kill they seek to make. In their rare sojourn to the cornfields, home to Iowa State University and other great schools that highlight our lead role in education, our visitors from Washington devote no interest to the whole lot of other things shaping lives in Iowa.

Our dichotomy of small towns built and sustained by a people who believe in the audacity of hard-work and our small businesses that keep the towns running and help put people to work are not unique to Iowa. They are part of the vast land that is the whole United States of America. Even so, Iowa’s singular “relevance” to Washington demonstrates the kind of lip service that the political class pays to Americans and the needs of the people that elect them to power.

Both Republicans and Democrats have been trooping to Iowa. They’ve been visiting to lay ground for the vote. Much at play in these moments is the never-ending war over culture and values. Yet the dwarfing of America’s greatness has been a result of either value in claim. In a farm state like this, with a not-so-alarming unemployment rate by national figures, there’s need to question the absence of a prodding instinct.

The Iowa dilemma isn’t about blue or red, but rather the mellow civic engagement on issues that should shape the polls. Although a deep sense of apathy is seeping across the nation, the strategic placing of Iowa in the polls demands some elevated level of involvement. This coming election will be decided by the choice that young voters, mostly students, make. President Obama’s new voters — the first timers and the newly registered at the 2008 election — could either decide to stay home or join the bandwagon in deciding who gets their support.

This is a reality that comes home to Iowa earlier than any other state. Yet young voters of Iowa, especially students across college campuses, appear removed. It is quite understandable that the wounds inflicted on the economy by the political class have been equally choking to students, but there has to be a way out of the mess. And that’s the favor young voters in Iowa can grant the nation: staying tuned in. Listen to them as they come. Prod their denunciation and counter-denunciation.

There is a general problem with what really matters to society — and to students. We can still catch “Glee” or “American Idol,” even as we train our sights on the barrage of entourages here by the Sarah Palins, the Rick Perrys, the Paul Begalas, and the Michele Bachmanns of this politicourse. The political gamble has the future of students at stake more than anyone else. We need to make known to politicians that America was built on replication. That small town success can be tried all over the place. If our own CyRide can efficiently embrace safe energy here in Ames, so can the rest of the nation.

This is a fight for America. It is a fight to bring more businesses to our towns. It is a commitment to compel those in authority to devote more attention to our schools. When we stand up in this fight, we force those we elect to heed our voices, to work with us to better our economy. Our circumstances today are such that we all have an open invitation to join in and end the demagoguery that is choking a spirit whose strength of foundation is as clear.