I don’t receive a lot of phone calls and am wary when one rings in. The breakout of inbound is something like 60 percent spam and unsolicited telemarketing, 20 percent political calls, and 20 percent humans with whom I need to have a conversation.
The political calls are getting more frequent and I’m picking them up from familiar area codes… for now. I don’t know how they get my number.
The telephone app is one of the least used on my mobile device.
While I lived in Germany, a fellow officer brought his family with him. He couldn’t stand to be away from his spouse who had to stay in touch with close family back in Alabama. The phone bills almost ruined them. I don’t recall how they resolved it, other than she returned to Alabama early, he moved into the BOQ (bachelor officers quarters) and they had to stretch the $11,000 annual officer’s pay a lot further than it was designed to go. I had a telephone from the local German company but rarely used it. It was too expensive to phone home even though there was a clicker on it that informed me in real time how much I used. The clicker went really fast when I was on line with Mother.
I had two phone calls this week from the Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg campaigns inviting me to events in the county seat. With the remaining garden and yard work I don’t see that I can afford time to attend either. I do have the Warren office opening on my calendar for Thursday after work at the home, farm and auto supply store. For the summer, I’m sticking to political events closer to home because when I make the half-hour trip to the county seat or to Iowa’s second largest city it takes prime time out of a day I should be spending working at home. I’m usually spent afterward, even if the event itself is short.
Not only do I not like using a telephone, I like driving even less.
I plan to leave my mobile device in the kitchen and work outside until it begins to rain. I have voicemail, which I may access when I come indoors, or may not.
Marianne Williamson addressing a gathering at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on June 10, 2019.
About 11:15 a.m. I left the garden and drove Ely Blacktop to 76th Street and headed West to Cedar Hall on the main campus of Kirkwood Community College where presidential candidate Marianne Williamson joined State Senator Rob Hogg in a “climate conversation.”
Since I would be returning to the garden after the event, I wore my overalls and mud-caked gardening shoes.
I joined a number of students and staff, along with local members of environmental groups in a large operating theater-style classroom. By the time we got started more than 40 people had joined us.
I attended partly because the venue was close to home, partly to support Senator Hogg’s efforts to engage presidential candidates about climate change, and partly to see if Williamson’s campaign is, as some have called it, a “joke.”
Marianne Williamson taking questions at Kirkwood Community College, June 10, 2019.
Williamson’s campaign is not a joke. Why anyone would criticize a woman who is successful in her own right, by objective standards such as having written four number one New York Times best selling books, had me curious. She made it to the first two Democratic National Committee presidential debates, although just barely achieving one percent support in three separate national polls to qualify. She’s dead serious about her platform and as confident as any of the other 23 presidential candidates. With great optimism she said, “If you’re going to run for president, you might just win.”
The main news out of the event was Williamson did not support a separate DNC debate on the topic of climate change. The reason, she said, was “because there is no competing with Jay Inslee.” Williamson also said the topic cannot be separated from the broader problems in the United States. She made a point. Advocates for addressing the deleterious effects of the climate crisis cannot separate this one issue into a silo separate from other important matters like health care, education and national defense and expect to resolve them.
State Senator Rob Hogg explaining why the Iowa caucuses are first in the nation. “We do it right,” he said.
Williamson made a strong case for slowing our relationship with Saudi Arabia. She said as president she would immediately stop arms sales to the kingdom and end United States support for the war in Yemen, a conflict she said was immoral.
She also weighed in on nuclear disarmament, asking why we need 100 aircraft capable of delivering nuclear bombs when dropping ten of them could end life as we know it? It was refreshing to hear a candidate raise the issue without prompting.
Dave Bradley at Blog for Iowa wrote Williamson was positioned in the third tier of candidates, among those “who truly have little chance and are often running to push some ideas or philosophy.”
Marianne Williamson has been finding her way all her adult life. Win or lose, the time spent with her this afternoon was memorable for her determination to assert her solutions her way. As Hogg referred to her speech in Cedar Rapids yesterday, it is the “politics of love” and quite different from the offerings of other candidates.
Neighborhood Network News recorded this event. The YouTube video can be viewed here.
Governor Jay Inslee at Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, June 8, 2019.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Saturday afternoon I drove to the Overlook Pavilion in Ellis Park where State Senator Rob Hogg had organized a “climate conversation” with Washington Governor Jay Inslee who is an announced candidate for president.
Hogg reminded us of the 2008 Cedar River flooding. The river was visible behind him.
It is hard to forget the 2008 flood that devastated Iowa’s second largest city. On my way to the event I compared flooding levels of the Atherton Wetland on Ely Blacktop which had been covered with flood water in 2008. From the center of Cedar Rapids I used First Street Southwest, which runs next to the Cedar River, to find the park. On the eastern bank someone had built a flood wall. An earthen berm restricted the view of the river on some parts of First Street. The low-lying area had been inundated in 2008 causing damage to more than 5,000 homes, evacuation of 25,000 people, and roughly $4 billion dollars damage. The flood was made worse by climate change.
In his introductory remarks, Senator Hogg recognized elected officials and organizations present and encouraged the almost 200 attendees to engage in the Iowa caucus process of meeting with presidential candidates. Hogg added later, “with the spirit of citizenship, we can bring Americans together for climate action we so urgently need and the many climate solutions that work.”
Governor Inslee began his remarks with the reason he seeks to defeat climate change, his grandchildren. “We have a moral obligation to the young people of America to defeat climate change,” he said. Noting last week’s atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was 414.42 ppm (only slightly less than the record (415.70) set May 15), he added, “It is time to act on climate.”
Defeating climate change would be the first priority for an Inslee administration, the governor said. It was a “predicate for success” in all policy areas. If addressing climate change is not job one it won’t get done.
Inslee split from environmental groups like Citizen’s Climate Lobby when he said he did not support a tax on carbon. He favors regulatory reform to reduce carbon emissions. Based on his experience in Washington State, voters are unlikely to accept such a tax, he said.
Inslee asked for help in two areas of his campaign.
While he met the qualifications to participate in the first two debates being hosted by the Democratic National Committee, he has not met the 130,000 donor threshold to participate in the third and fourth. He encouraged those present to donate one dollar or more to his campaign and ask friends and family to do likewise.
Inslee wants the Democratic National Committee to devote one candidate debate to climate change so every participating candidate can lay out their plan to defeat it for voters to see. The request has been rejected, making supporting Inslee the best way to make sure the topic is covered during the debates, he said. Holding a climate change debate outside those sanctioned by DNC is not an option.
“It is the DNC’s job to organize the debate schedule, and the ground rules on unsanctioned debates were made clear with all the candidates, including Governor Inslee, and media partners months ago,” DNC spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa told Mother Jones. The DNC welcomes candidates to join issue-specific forums instead.
The thrust of the conversation was Inslee has a positive progressive record in Washington State and wants to take that success to Washington, D.C. To learn more about Governor Jay Inslee, visit his website at JayInslee.com.
The Inslee campaign posted video of the event here.
I’ve been wanting to try the Impossible™ Burger and will have to wait.
I met a group of friends at a restaurant Friday where Impossible™ was printed on the menu. Since Burger King® decided to offer the plant-based burger nation-wide, smaller restaurants haven’t been able to get it according to our server.
The kitchen did have a Beyond Burger®, which I tried and was satisfied by my pub grub-style meal of a burger, coleslaw and Stella Artois®.
The reason I mention this is the American Farm Bureau Federation was running down products like these burgers for being “ultraprocessed.” In a June 4 blog post, author Teresa Bjork invoked reality to straighten people out,
In reality, meat and milk imitators are ultraprocessed foods. They are made from a long list of ingredients, including sodium and added flavors and colors, to improve their taste and nutrition.
One suspects increased availability of veggie burgers, and the Burger King® marketing decision, is taking a bite out of cattle producer market share. Likewise, the reason ovo-lacto vegetarians like fake meat is not for the salt content, but for how it fits into our lifestyle as comfort food. No matter how bad things may get for us personally, we want the sensation of eating foods that are traditional in our culture. Let’s cut to the chase.
The single biggest way to reduce our impact on Earth is to avoid consuming meat and dairy. Maintaining herds of livestock is a land use policy that encourages the ongoing mass extinction by taking land thus depriving other species of habitat.
“Meat and dairy provide just 18 percent of calories and 37 percent of protein, (using) the vast majority – 83 percent – of farmland and producing 60 percent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the Guardian.
We can do better than that.
It’s no secret people should consume less processed food, particularly simple sugars and carbohydrates, for dietary reasons. For the Farm Bureau to favor meat and dairy production of their members is also not surprising. What is fake here is not the burgers, it’s the straw-man argument to protect what Farm Bureau sees as its own interests.
From time to time many Iowans crave a tasty burger. Getting one without politicizing it may be impossible.
The forecast looks perfect for a day in the garden. I intend to get started soon after sun up at 5:31 a.m. and work as long as I’m able or until needed work is done.
Tomatoes and cucumber seedlings are reaching the critical stage where either they get planted or composted and I favor the former. Otherwise, what was the point of all the planning and preparations in the greenhouse? If I establish the tomato patch and plant cucumbers and peppers that will be enough of an accomplishment.
My scale is larger than a typical household garden with 38 plum and slicer tomato plants planned, a scaled down cucumber patch, and a patch of 12 hot peppers alongside one row of guajillo and one row of ancho chilies. If I get that all in, anything else would be a bonus. The goal is to finish by 4 p.m. so I can go out to dinner in the county seat with some of my blogger friends.
Sunday, June 9, is the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame induction in Cedar Rapids. The Hall of Fame is one of the biggest party fundraisers of the year and this year’s inductees are Fred and Charlotte Hubbell who have long been active in Democratic politics. They are also among the most significant financial contributors to the party. Fred Hubbell was our gubernatorial candidate in 2018. Other individuals and groups are also recognized at the event. Here’s a link.
19 candidates for president will take five minutes each to address attendees. Most candidates have events scheduled in and around Cedar Rapids this weekend to expand the reach of their trip to Iowa’s second largest city. The events range from sign waving rallies outside the event location to family-friendly gatherings in a park to food and social time with candidates. The event I plan to attend is a climate conversation with Washington Governor Jay Inslee who made the climate crisis the focus of his campaign for president. Organized by State Senator Rob Hogg, a long-time member of the Climate Reality Project, I’m looking forward to hearing how the conversation goes Saturday, June 8 at 6 p.m. at Ellis Park in Cedar Rapids.
I had a brief chat at the county party central committee meeting with one of the Our Revolution of Johnson County organizers about the Bernie Sanders campaign. The campaign saved voter information from Sanders’ 2016 effort, which resulted in half of caucus-goers supporting Sanders. The salient question is whether 2016 Sanders support can be converted to 2020 support. Our local Sanders organizer is in training this week and they haven’t finished the canvass to know the answer. They have significant endorsers and thousands of volunteers to perform the canvass.
“This incredible group of endorsers are some of the most well-known progressive voices that Iowa has to offer,” Misty Rebik, Sanders’ state director, said in a June 6 statement to Iowa Starting Line. “Together with our 25,000-strong volunteer base in the state, these progressive Iowans will help us build on our grassroots movement and win on caucus night.”
I don’t see any of the other campaigns packing up and going home after this statement. However, if what Rebik told the blogger is true, I’m sure everyone will use their five minute speech at the Hall of Fame to add their Sanders endorsement to the list.
As I reported April 26, Newman Abuissa confirmed he is running for Congress in Iowa’s second district at last night’s county central committee meeting. I’ve known Abuissa for years and he’s a good guy. In addition to being an engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation, he is a member of the Arab American Institute’s National Policy Council. Active in peace and justice issues within the Iowa Democratic Party his focus has been on foreign policy as it relates to the Middle East. It seems unlikely he will gain traction against announced candidate Rita Hart, but his announcement was clearly heartfelt. He’s right. We could do a lot of good with the money being wasted on our perpetual wars.
I can see the light of a new day dawning through the window on the other end of my writing space. Time to get to work in the garden.
Fallen apples after a severe storm Sept. 20, 2013.
A thunderstorm with potential to create a tornado arrived about 8:45 p.m. last night. As the front of the cell moved over our house, we went to the lower level and waited in a safe corner, staying tuned to reports from news outlets. The National Weather Service precisely described our location in one of its tornado warnings.
The early warning system and technology supporting it are pretty amazing.
There was no tornado or straight line winds I could see or hear, although when the sun rises I’ll inspect the property for damage. The forecast is for scattered and isolated thunderstorms beginning around 2 p.m. today. We’ve seen worse storms than last night in recent years.
Wednesday I went to the warehouse club to fill a new eyeglasses prescription. On the way I stopped at a hair salon for a trim. Stylist conversation was about spring planting and how far behind many farmers are. We shared observations that fields have standing water and many farmers haven’t planted. One more manifestation of community talk about excessive rain’s impact our lives.
Farmers are giving up on corn, as it is getting too late to plant. They’ll switch to soybeans if they can get in the fields. From where we are today, they need a solid week of drying before running planters in fields. Estimates are 31 million planned corn acres remain to be planted, a few days work with modern agricultural technology. Because of wet fields with forecasts for more rain, it seems unlikely many will make it before the mid-June planting deadline to get crop insurance. 2019 looks to be a year farmers remain viable through insurance payments, federal subsidies and smart planning. Getting into wet fields not only poses risks of reduced yield for a current crop, resulting soil compaction would affect next year’s planting. So we wait.
I ordered my eyeglasses, fueled my vehicle and picked up groceries. The garden was muddy so I focused on inside work, still waiting for the weather to break. Last night’s thunderstorm indicated Mother Nature is not ready for that.
Vice President Joe Biden in the Rope Line in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, May 19, 2010
As a registered Democrat with substantial political experience, former Vice President Joe Biden is welcome to run for president. The question in my precinct is whether he can find enough supporters to achieve viability in the February 2020 precinct caucuses.
In 2008, Biden was not viable on his own, or when his supporters formed a coalition with Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson supporters. He dropped out of the race in January.
During that cycle, we had ample opportunity to meet members of the Biden clan.
I met Jill Biden in nearby Solon during a 2007 non-partisan, multiple candidate event held by the Solon Senior Advocates. She was campaigning for her husband. I met Beau Biden at Old Brick in Iowa City that cycle after he gave a speech. I finally met Joe in Cedar Rapids while he was serving as vice president after a 2010 campaign event for Chet Culver. Joe Biden stayed long after his speech and shook hands with anyone who cared to. His campaigns seemed about what is referred to as the “Biden clan.” Appearances in person, or through a surrogate, were part of the same energy. If you supported him, you became part of that energy, a de facto member of the Biden clan. Some viewed that as a positive.
I recently read Jill Biden’s memoir, Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself, which effectively lays out the meaning of the Biden clan. I didn’t know what to expect when I bought the book, just that I found her personable when I met her. What I found is a well-crafted narrative of a type of American family that when I was younger, I wanted to be part of. That type of family is now fading from our collective imagination. With Biden 3.0 the same energies emanate from their home in Delaware. They don’t seem that spell-binding today.
Evaluating Biden 3.0 involves specific queries.
Do you believe Joe Biden is a fake politician or is he genuine?
When I worked in transportation my supervisor was an active Republican who unexpectedly criticized Biden for his hair transplants. “He’s fake,” he said to me on several occasions, referring to the hair plugs and Biden’s vanity for getting them. That seemed a superficial analysis, even though he had encountered Biden at an airport and confirmed up close the hair looked bad. When I met Biden, I didn’t look at his hairline, but felt the warm handshake and attention he gave me. That’s similar to what other Democrats have mentioned when talking about Biden. I know few Democrats who doubt the genuine nature of Joe Biden’s personality. Nonetheless, it’s a question to answer. He’s the real deal.
Is Biden in it to win it?
On his third attempt to win the Democratic nomination for president, at age 76, life is too short to enter the race to make a point. There is no doubt Biden wants to win. National media reported on Biden clan deliberations about the 2020 opportunity. When he announced, national media gave him good coverage. Because of his near-universal name recognition among Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers, he is running a different type of campaign. Yesterday the Washington Post ran an article titled, “Joe Biden’s campaign of limited exposure: How long can he keep it up?” They summarized the campaign strategy as follows,
With near universal name recognition and high favorability ratings among Democrats, the former vice president does not need to introduce himself to voters like nearly every other candidate. And as the leader in early polls, he can attract media attention without splashy events.
Focused on fundraising instead of early state local events, Biden can appear above the fray. He’s been criticized for this approach, but if the focus is to win, it may be a solid strategy — maybe good enough to see him through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, and if he wins there, through Super Tuesday.
What about Biden’s record in the U.S. Senate?
People criticize Biden’s work as Senate Judiciary Committee chair during President George H.W. Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The criticism is specifically of Biden’s handling of Anita Hill’s testimony. Such criticism seems justified from a 2019 perspective. What is forgotten is Biden was judiciary chair during President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork as an associate justice. The Bork nomination became famous for Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy’s floor speech within 45 minutes of the nomination, in which he said,
Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, and schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.
Biden did an effective job shepherding rejection of that nomination and should get appropriate credit. As much as the Bork nomination and Kennedy’s speech reflects our politics in 2019, I believe voters and caucus-goers must take Biden’s entire political history into consideration, including his vote for the Iraq War.
Is Joe Biden the same person who stepped on the stage with Barack Obama in Chicago’s Grant Park on Nov. 7, 2008 in front of an estimated million people?
I don’t know. I hope not. He’s gotten older, has eight years of the Obama administration on his resume, and hasn’t spent much time in his third campaign to be president defining policy. He stands out in Iowa for those things.
He hasn’t been a part of the campaign grind we see played out in local media hardly at all. While Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and others have 50 or more organizers on the ground in Iowa, Biden 3.0 appears to be banking on his prior work to gain him the viability he couldn’t find in 2008.
It is fair to ask the question Jill Filipovic did in a May 17 New York Times op-ed, “Does anyone actually want Joe Biden to be President?” It is equally fair to feel badly about asking it after coming into contact with the Biden clan’s energy over so many years.
I like Joe Biden. I don’t like him for president. If he’s nominated, I’ll support him, like I would any of the 24 potential nominees. That’s a feeling many in my political circle of friends have expressed. It will override the tit for tat niggling over candidates when it comes to the general election. At least I hope it does.
A brilliant, partly-cloudy sky hung over the landscape as I made my way east on Interstate 80.
Rain broke long enough to allow a trip to Davenport to visit Mom and a friend I met in grade school.
Mother insisted on making coffee and it was the best I’ve had in a while. It took her longer than it would have me, but I stood with her and helped as best I could. At age 89 she wanted to do it so who was I to object?
She’s joined the cohort of octogenarians who dread the thought of going into a nursing home when staying at home no longer works. This dread is almost universal among Americans and with good reason. Almost everyone I know who had experiences with a relative checking into a nursing home has a horror story or two about neglect and mistreatment.
I believe the problem with nursing homes is, like with other modern social phenomena, mostly because of the decline in K-12 education, the rise in private and home schooling, and the dominance of FOX News and right-wing radio among people who continue to be radio listeners or view television broadcasts and cable. People have been dumbed down and will swallow almost anything they hear repeated often enough.
Nursing homes don’t have to be as bad as they are, but education and social learning haven’t prepared us as well as they could for getting help with aging relatives. Most people can’t afford an in-home nurse when someone requires 24/7 attention. A nursing home has become the best opportunity to enable a loved one to live their final time on Earth with dignity. Indignities regularly imposed on residents become exceptionally objectionable because of this.
I met my friend for lunch at an Italian-style restaurant. Italian restaurants usually have fresh salad offerings and this one was no exception. They offered some “Chicago-style” dishes which apparently are gaining popularity in my home town. Like with Mother, my friend and I had an engaging visit.
I got sleepy and stopped at the rest area halfway home to walk around. A great thing about Iowa rest areas is they have clean rest rooms and drinking fountains with free, chilled, filtered water. Refreshed, I made it home okay, passing presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard’s advertising billboard outside Iowa City. One may try to get away from it, but politics never takes a holiday.
At home, I mowed the lawn as best I could, breaking a sweat. The ambient temperature was moderate and the sky remained bright. As I mowed around the garden, the grove of fruit trees, and lilacs, I was reminded of how much yard work remains to be done to get the property in suitable shape. My solace can be found in the Meriam Bellina song,
One day at a time sweet Jesus
That’s all I’m asking from you
Just give me the strength
To do everyday what I have to do.
Yesterday’s gone sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Lord help me today, show me the way
One day at a time.
I need to make another pass to pick up the grass clippings for the garden.
The garden patch has standing water in divots dug last week. When I mowed near the ditch the sound of running water informed me it hadn’t dried out and might not this year. Gardeners on social media are getting their vegetables planted, and this is the latest start they can remember. The wet spring has been problematic, although all is not lost… yet.
Soon corn farmers will have to turn to beans if the ground doesn’t dry out enough for planting. With China no longer wanting corn and soybeans because of U.S. tariffs, the prospect of plummeting soybean prices is real, and farmers will take it on the chin… again.
All in all Saturday was a positive day in a turbulent world. Hopefully I’ll get some garden time in when I return from the farm this afternoon.
The president is said to be considering pardons for convicted war criminals as we go into the Memorial Day weekend.
Jamelle Bouie names some of the criminals under consideration in a New York Times article.
Last year, a federal jury in Washington convicted Nicholas Slatten, a former security contractor, of first-degree murder for his role in killing one of 14 Iraqi civilians who died in 2007 in a shooting that also injured more than a dozen others. Matthew Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret, was charged late last year with the murder of an unarmed Afghan man during a 2010 deployment. Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who served in Iraq, was reported to authorities by his own men, who witnessed him “stabbing a defenseless teenage captive to death,” “picking off a school-age girl and an old man from a sniper’s roost” and “indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine-gun fire.”
It is the president’s prerogative to grant pardons. What does it say about our country that he picked these men?
It says nothing positive on a day set aside to recognize those who gave their lives for our country.
Tom Miller Photo Credit – Iowa Attorney General’s Office
On Wednesday, May 22, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds line-item vetoed HF 615, the justice system appropriations bill, to remove sections 24 and 28 pertaining to the role of the attorney general.
The law would have “required the approval of the Governor, Executive Council, or Legislature to prosecute any action or proceeding, including signing onto or authoring amicus briefs or letters of support, in any court or tribunal other than an Iowa state court,” according to the press release.
While she vetoed that part of the bill, Reynolds said the law had brought Attorney General Tom Miller into discussions about their respective roles. In the transmittal letter accompanying the bill, Reynolds wrote,
As a result of the Legislature’s leadership on this issue, Attorney General Miller and I have had the opportunity to engage in a thoughtful discussion about the appropriate balance of authority between the Governor and the Attorney General with respect to Iowa’s involvement in litigation. And ultimately, Attorney General Miller agreed to my proposal to adjust our litigation practices in a manner that I believe addresses my core concerns without amending Iowa’s current statutes.
Attorney General Tom Miller said his agreement with the governor was made in good faith,
This agreement allows my office to continue to protect Iowans through consumer enforcement actions, which are primarily filed in Iowa courts. It also allows me to express my opinion on matters affecting Iowans before federal agencies and Congress.
Republicans got the leash out but avoided collaring the popular Miller.
In part, the ability to reasonably negotiate differences between state-wide elected officials is part of what makes Iowa different from nearby states like Wisconsin and Kansas. We look at them and say to ourselves as Iowans, “Dear God! Let’s not be like them.” That Reynolds and Miller were even able to discuss and negotiate a better solution to Republican dislike of his activities is something. It is also something else.
While Miller, first elected in 1978, is the longest serving attorney general in the United States, he will eventually retire or die in office. That he is a Democrat is less important to his longevity than the way he looks after the interests of Iowans. When Miller’s seat becomes an open race to replace him, electing a Democrat is not assured. If anything, the office of attorney general will lean in the direction of state government’s majority party.
There are one-offs like Democratic Auditor Rob Sand, who won statewide election despite Republican dominance in other offices. If Reynolds has the same longevity as Terry Branstad, Democrats holding statewide office may well be sanded off in the woodshed of Republican re-making of the state. By vetoing sections of the HF 615 pertaining to the attorney general, Reynolds is playing the long game in politics, looking after her own interests as much as settling an immediate political dispute.
We live in an open society and Republicans have been working to shape it according to their image. In many ways they have been successful. The longer it is before Democrats win a majority in the legislature and re-take the governor’s office the more permanently Republican initiatives penetrate our culture and become the background against which we live our lives. Democrats failed to stop Republicans in 2018. 2020 remains our last best hope to do so. Flipping the Iowa House of Representatives to Democratic is both doable and a primary goal for Democrats this cycle.
A veil of reasonable envelopes the judiciary budget bill and the settlement between Reynolds and Miller. One hopes the outcome is indeed reasonable, and not the vapid dealings of a Republican party looking out for their own long-term self-interest.
Journey Home 
You must be logged in to post a comment.