Like in every year since 2017, when Republicans gained majorities in both chambers of the Iowa legislature, there is a voting bill this session, House Study Bill 697. A person could set their clock by this behavior. The impact of the annual process is to make elections more difficult for Iowans. Changing the duties of the Iowa Secretary of State and how elections are conducted is a feature, not a bug, of Republican governance.
While the majority party continues to ratchet down election restrictions, they apparently don’t understand that whatever scheme they devise will serve Democratic success in re-taking control of the legislature. Democrats did required analysis of the election process and designed the work needed to win during the 2008 election when Barack Obama won Iowa. They can and eventually will do it again.
Republicans can dink around all they want. It won’t mean diddly-squat when the Iowa population moves to replace them. The movement will be bigger than only what Democrats want. I believe the day is approaching.
There was drama during the Iowa House State Government Subcommittee over House Study Bill 697, as Trish Nelson pointed out. Rep. Amy Nielsen and Chair Bobby Kaufmann entered a heated exchange about the bill which ended with the two Democrats on the committee, Nielsen and Rep. Adam Zabner, walking out before the subcommittee meeting finished, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The subcommittee advanced the bill to the full committee in their absence. On Thursday, the full committee approved the measure.
Democrats have it wrong if their response to yearly voting restrictions is to bemoan loss of the halcyon years of the Obama campaigns when we could elect Democrats to statewide positions and award our electoral college votes to a Democrat. The kind of work we need to do is not complicated. Figure out who in the Iowa population will vote for our candidates, understand the new rules for voting, and persuade our people to vote. Strategies like this hopefully exist, are kept secret, and have already been implemented by the Iowa Democratic Party.
All you Republicans who are tinkering with the voting process, beware. Iowans are are coming to replace you and it may be as soon as in November.
I hope everyone reading this post is already helping Democrats get elected in November. The time to engage is now.
There are two parts to turning the country around and both run through the ballot box.
The first is voting: making sure we take care of ourselves by checking our registration and then voting in person, either early or on election day. Encourage everyone we know to do likewise.
The second is changing the public narrative about life in Iowa and in the United States. We should not accept narratives being fed to us by media outlets, churches, interest groups, and political parties. Instead, we must develop new narratives that properly reflect how we live despite our differences. I predict this will change how we vote.
If we can do those things, there is a chance to make society a better place to live. I believe this is possible during the 2024 election cycle.
Political Canvassing
In Iowa, the political strategies and tactics Democrats used during the 2006-2008 election cycles have become obsolete. Not because talking to people lost importance to winning votes, but because we, as a society, have grown ever more suspicious of people we don’t know. Have to ask, what happened to Democrats after Obama won his first presidential election? We may feel we have to ask, but that’s the wrong question. What was an ability to win elections in 2006 and 2008, was an all in, once or nothing endeavor the usefulness of which waned by 2010 when Republicans began re-taking control of state government.
I door knocked for Democrats during the 2022 election cycle and can attest the game changed since 2008. In the Johnson County part of House District 91, Democratic voter registrations outnumbered Republican and Democrats still couldn’t win that part of the district. At the doors, I heard people have complicated lives where voting was not among the highest priorities. I did the best I could, yet my efforts, and those of fellow Democratic canvassers, couldn’t get the job done. It wasn’t from a lack of effort. The centralized, targeted canvassing of the past no longer works.
Changing the narrative
How do we change the narrative about how we live? There are no easy answers. Recognizing how important answering this question is to the process of taking back our government is a necessary first step. Our media, in many ways, is the public narrative. It is messed up when one can say, “…the best way to reach the maximum audience is to give Republicans what they want and drive liberals to hate reading, hate sharing, and even hate subscribing. Because even by rebutting them, you spread and strengthen them,” as Jason Sattler wrote on FrameLab. There has to be a better way.
From ten cycles of door knocking for Democratic candidates, I found the narrative voters told me at the door was one of two kinds. The first was a simple statement about the moment in which we found ourselves. Those conversations were pleasant and whether we agreed or disagreed about our politics, we each took something away from the door. The second was less pleasant, as if someone just left a television set where FOX News was spreading misinformation and running down the Democrats. What I heard in both cases was the raw energy of an electorate in motion. It was clear the narratives Iowans lived by were sourced from places other than the issue list I carried at the door. Minds had already been made up.
The coronavirus pandemic had a substantial impact on our politics. Where I live it cemented the Republican majority. When Governor Kim Reynolds normalized the pandemic on Feb. 15, 2022, more than a year before Federal COVID-19 public health emergency declarations ended, she had developed a narrative about her role, which she repeated in an Aug. 30, 2023 news release, “Since news broke of COVID-19 restrictions being re-instated at some colleges and businesses across the U.S., concerned Iowans have been calling my office asking whether the same could happen here. My answer—not on my watch. In Iowa, government respects the people it serves and fights to protect their rights. I rejected the mandates and lock downs of 2020, and my position has not changed.” This narrative won her some votes. Set aside the science of a pandemic, or what actually happened, and it might sound pretty good. It is disconnected from reality.
Iowa legislative Democrats have a good idea. “People over Politics” is the right narrative for this campaign because it hits on the need to address the majority of Iowans’ needs and wants, rather than a small minority. After all, 3.2 million people live in Iowa. That’s a lot more than the 15 percent of registered Republican voters who attended their 2024 precinct caucuses. What we Democrats understand is it is not enough to repeat the slogan, check off the box, and return to politics as usual. Our narrative needs development and has to change. I’m confident our legislative leaders are doing that.
There is an easy and a hard part of the 2024 election. I’ll make sure my personal network votes in November. Every other political energy I expend will be devoted to changing the narrative. I believe it can and will make a difference.
It snowed overnight, meaning winter is trying to maintain its grip. The forecast is for snow to continue until 10 a.m. It will all melt, maybe later today, tomorrow for sure.
I reread wrote here yesterday’s post and stand by it. There is more work to do to flesh out what happiness means in measurable ways. It has to mean more than staying busy. I need to get busy with that, though.
There is lots to do today so I’ll leave this piece I wrote in 2012. Guess I’m feeling somewhat indigenous today.
At some level, we belong to an indigenous population. We are not that different from everyone else. I grew up in a neighborhood, and socialized with a cohort with whom I continue to have occasional contact. While elementary school teachers did their best to break us from our tribal leanings, some of us gripped our native culture, and the idea that we were all on the same footing. We wouldn’t let go as the teachers attempted to split us into groups, a talented tenth, and everyone else. I continue to have a strong sense of the culture shared with my cohort, even after so many years, and diverse experiences since the sixth grade.
Regular readers may be familiar with my usage of the “what’s in it for me” culture. This mindset is present in society, especially in business, but in other places as well. Where people have reasons for participating in things, and growing out of the need to make a profit, behaviors turn utilitarian, and therefore alienating. If there is nothing in a behavior that serves to profit me, why do it? In this scenario, the question, what’s in it for me requires an answer.
Individuals should strive for self-sufficiency, but not to the detriment of society and the commons. This includes managing our lives so we give more than we take from society. It includes managing the vast sea of words seeking its way to our consciousness. It includes dealing with tough problems that are greater than any individual, in concert with others. It includes the idea that there is no individual without the one of which we are all a part.
I searched “How is the GDP doing right now?” The answer returned from the internet was “U.S. GDP or Gross Domestic Product is the total value of goods produced and services provided in the U.S. It is at a current level of 27.94T, up from 27.61T last quarter and up from 26.41T one year ago. This is a change of 1.19% from last quarter and 5.80% from one year ago.” I’m not sure what this means to an ordinary guy like me.
I’m most interested in our family income, our consumption of goods and services, and the quality of life we produce for our family and in roles we assume among the rest of society. The group French President Nicholas Sarkozy put together at the time of the 2008 financial crisis thought like I do. Such items should be part of how we measure performance of the broad economy. That GDP doesn’t is part of the problem with using GDP. The committee enumerated such concerns in their recommendations and pointed out obstacles to accurately collecting this data and conveying it in a generic report. It’s been more than ten years and I don’t know if anything came of it.
My life sometimes seems like it is on generic autopilot, continuously moving from one task to the next, with little emotion and a hope to make it successfully through each day, week and month. I made it so far. There has to be more in life.
Because we live on a fixed income, tasks I undertake are devoid of financial concerns. They are weighted toward what has to be done and what I want to do. I know which activities are too expensive and which must be delayed until they will fit in the budget. This knowledge creates a quality of life.
For example, after replacing some major appliances (stove, washer, dryer and furnace) our electricity expense reduced by 20 percent year over year. Replacing decades old appliances was something we would not have done except for the fact they couldn’t be cost-effectively repaired. In the case of the furnace, replacement parts were simply not available. We had to replace them. Money saved on electricity will be assigned other uses. It will be a non-item in the bigger picture. Our quality of life is better for having new appliances.
Our health care is in turmoil right now because the University of Iowa bought Mercy Hospital. The practitioner I saw in town already jumped ship. Staff at the clinic seemed uncertain what would be next and reported some people were keeping options open on a month-to-month basis until a transition plan was known. This tumult is part of the story of our financial condition as it relates to health care.
The rest of the health care story is that since getting on Medicare, I’ve had very little to co pay. If it was $10 over the years, that would be a high estimate. My insurance comes from Medicare, which deducts the premium from my Social Security payment, combined with a supplemental health insurance plan and a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. My experience is different from my cohort who belong to Medicare Advantage programs. It is different from people who are on Medicaid or on private health insurance. The country needs to convert to Medicare for All and do away with private insurance completely. How differently people solve health care needs creates a challenge when it comes to measurements like the GDP.
Household maintenance and health care are two measurements of our financial and personal condition. There are others like our health, who does household tasks like simple repairs, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and care giving. We also measure net worth, monitor loans, and prioritize major repairs around the property. We keep a balance sheet. When it comes down to dust, I feel like we are doing alright, yet have no real idea whether we are.
I am glad the GDP is rising… except for the way the environmental costs of exploitative industries are omitted… except for the way the numbers favor large business and government interests. Production looks good this quarter. How will it look to our children ten or twenty years from now?
I have a sketchy relationship with GDP. The more I learn, the less I like it. I need to develop my own narrative of how things are going.
It is good to begin walking the lake shore trail now that most snow melted. Getting outdoors and breathing fresh air is a boon to our existence. Not that many in modern American society care much about that.
How do we measure happiness? Certainly, the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) doesn’t adequately factor it in. Neither does the CPI (Consumer Price Index). Maybe these indices should consider human welfare instead of production numbers and the price of things. There are ways to do that.
Not holding my breath.
As far as being a human, living in the United States, I’m doing fine. We have adequate retirement pensions, plenty to eat, basic necessities, and a positive net worth when the value of the house is added. We get along better than billions of other humans do. But am I happy? I don’t know, which by default is a no.
The next time I walk on the lake shore trail I’ll have to give the matter of personal happiness some thought. Not too much thought, though. That would be just another job.
When I was on the county board of health we updated our pandemic response plan multiple times. It was all in a day’s work, although most revision work was done by staff. The board was expected to agree. I read the document and it looked okay to me. That was ten years before the coronavirus pandemic entered society. At least the public health department had a plan.
Before too much time escapes, I want to write my story of what happened during the pandemic. A basic framing of the pandemic is as follows:
3/11/2020 WHO declares COVID a pandemic.
2/15/2022 Pandemic normalized by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
9/18/2022 “The pandemic is over,” Joe Biden said.
5/11/2023 Federal COVID-19 public health emergency declarations ended.
Soon after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, on March 13, 2020, I got together with a grade school friend in the county seat. We had lunch in an almost deserted restaurant, then ended our day together at a bar in Tiffin. Patrons crowded around the bar while my friend and I took a table at some distance from them. There were many more empty seats than people that afternoon. We had little idea what the coronavirus would mean to our daily lives.
By March 18, the coronavirus was spreading throughout the county. News media reported most deaths were among people over age 60. I was in reasonably good health but I didn’t want to take chances at my retail job where I was exposed to and had contracted all sorts of viruses. They offered an unpaid leave for the duration of the pandemic. There was no argument at home when I decided to take it. They optimistically gave me a month, by the end of which we expected the public health emergency to be over. I then decided we were making it okay on our pensions and retired on April 28, 2020.
During the time since March 2020, I wrote 307 posts tagged coronavirus. I also kept a journal in which the coronavirus was a constant presence. Thus far we avoided contracting COVID-19. I wish I could say the same about everyone I know but can’t. Both friends and neighbors died of COVID-19.
I want to write at least a few thousand words about the pandemic for my autobiography. The main changes brought by the early pandemic were concerns about having enough food, maintaining isolation at home, leaving paid work, and figuring out how to best cope with the virus. I will spend some time reviewing the impact of social media and video conferencing technology. I became familiar with Zoom, Google Meet and Discord as a way to participate in meetings remotely. Video conferencing had a long-term effect on how we live.
As far as today’s pandemic goes, we are still coping with information about the spread of new virus strains and surges in case counts. I want to stay current on COVID-19 vaccinations. If I hear there is a surge in case counts, I’m more likely to wear a facial mask when grocery shopping or in an indoors public space.
I have homework to do before finishing this story. There will be a Part 2, and as many parts as needed to tell the story. This post is a way to get started.
There are two parts to turning the country around and both run through the ballot box.
The first is voting: making sure we take care of ourselves by checking our registration and then voting in person, either early or on election day. Encourage everyone we know to do likewise.
The second is changing the public narrative about life in Iowa and in the United States. We should not accept narratives being fed to us by major media outlets, churches, interest groups backed by wealthy people, and political parties. Instead, we must develop new narratives that properly reflect how we live despite our differences. I predict this will change how we vote.
If we can do those things, there is a chance to make society a better place to live. I believe this is possible in 2024.
In Iowa, the political strategies and tactics Democrats used during the 2006-2008 election cycles have become obsolete. Not because talking to people lost importance to winning votes, but because we, as a society, have grown ever more suspicious of people we don’t know. Have to ask, what happened to Democrats after Obama won his first presidential election? We may feel we have to ask, but that’s the wrong question. What was an ability to win elections in 2006 and 2008, was an all in, once or nothing endeavor whose usefulness waned by 2010 when Republicans began re-taking control of state government.
I door knocked for Democrats during the 2022 election cycle and can attest the game changed since 2008. In the Johnson County part of House District 91, Democratic voter registrations outnumbered Republican and Democrats still couldn’t win that part of the district. At the doors, I heard people have complicated lives where voting was not among the highest priorities. I did the best I could, yet my efforts and those of fellow Democratic canvassers couldn’t get the job done. It wasn’t from a lack of effort.
How do we change the narrative about how we live? There are no easy answers. Recognizing how important this is to the process of taking back our government is a necessary first step. I’ll make sure my personal network votes in November. Every other political energy I expend will be devoted to changing the narrative. I believe it can make a difference.
Tools to make the first tray of garden seedlings. Kale went in on Feb. 3.
I’ve been chatting it up with some neighbors on social media. There was consensus we hunkered down inside our homes for most of January because of snow and freezing ambient temperatures. There is hope for a break in winter and we’d just as soon move into spring. Personal productivity lags in winter. It’s time to step up the pace.
The idea of a “week” still resonates. Monday means start of the week, Friday is for closing down activities, Saturday is to perform a number of small household tasks, plus help our child with their small business. Sunday remains a day of rest, sort of. It’s not the same as when I worked full time. Then I knew that Friday usually meant casual clothes, voluntary trips to the office, and time to pursue my writing and family life.
I walked about the garden. The green I saw from the kitchen was collards that had been eaten more than I could tell from a distance. I had no interest in picking through the leaves, especially with a freezer full already available. I suppose the cruciferous vegetable-eating insects that survive the cold don’t have a lot to choose from in winter.
On Saturday I planted the first seeds for the garden and put the tray on a heating pad under a grow lamp. They are mostly last year’s seeds and that should not be a problem for kale. Kale is one of the vegetables I have mastered growing. It was something to see the tools lined up and ready to start. I worked with the garage door open for the fresh air and because we seem to be exiting the Iowa deep freeze.
I am a Cold War warrior. I was in the U.S. Military during the period NATO stood down Soviet forces at the West German border. Based on intelligence received from friends who spied on Soviet troops, we believed we could whip their collective asses on any given day. That was likely our youth speaking. In 2024, Russian progress in Ukraine brings me chills. Russia could win that conflict, annex Ukraine, and commit genocide on the Ukrainian population. To a Cold War warrior, those are real and concerning possibilities. They should be the same for every American.
I wrote my U.S. Senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, about the stalled supplemental aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other items. Congressional Republicans insisted on tying passage to immigration reform and when they did, the supplemental hit a logjam. After emphasizing to my senators the importance of aid to Ukraine, I wrote they should sever the immigration portion of the bill and pass it separately to free up passage of the military aid bill. I’m not the only one with this opinion.
“It’d be nice to change the status quo on the border, but if there’s not the political support to do that, then I think we should proceed with the rest of the supplemental,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters. “I don’t think we have any real choice (but to do so).” A Thursday headline in the Cedar Rapids Gazette read, “Deal on wartime aid and border security stalls in Congress.”
What is going on? Grassley spilled the beans Wednesday on NBC while answering reporter questions about a tax bill.
“Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good — mailing out checks before the election — means he could be re-elected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts,” Grassley told a reporter.
The bill does not include checks for Americans; what it includes is a tax credit. Republicans don’t want President Biden to “look good” on any front, including by passing aid for Ukraine and immigration reform, both of which have strong bipartisan support.
It is irritating Grassley and Ernst dodged the supplemental aid issue in their response to my note. I told each of them I needed no response, that I would watch how they voted. They quickly responded with a full page of comments without mentioning Ukraine, Israel or Taiwan.
I have had reasonable interaction with both Senators Grassley and Ernst. I don’t always agree with them, yet they usually respond to my queries and if we disagree, they tell me why. They have been courteous when we interacted personally, even when disagreeing. In a red state that’s the best we can expect.
For her part, Ernst acknowledged the oversized role played by drug cartels on the southern border, and listed some legislation she introduced or sponsored to address the situation. She asserted there is a humanitarian crisis at the border. I don’t disagree, only it’s not the kind she’s talking about.
Chuck Grassley has been my Iowa U.S. Senator all the time since I married in 1982. I left the state for six years, and he was still there when I returned. I lost count of how many times I met with him or his staff.
Grassley’s approach is similar to Ernst. He lists legislation he supports to address issues at the southern border. He briefly mentioned the House Speaker’s concerns about the border bill, and accused the Biden Administration of “abusing the parole system” to enable admission to the country of large groups of people outside “established pathways.” In a self-serving way, he times the start of the border problem as beginning when Biden took office. As I wrote in my note to him, immigration has been an issue in the United States almost since he was first elected to the Senate. We seem no closer to changing it in a way that will make sense to most Americans. We’ll recognize something went right when Dreamers have a path to citizenship.
Author Tom Nichols summarized the political situation in The Atlantic.
At this moment, the United States is on the verge of failing a challenge of will and commitment, much to the delight of the neo-fascist Russian regime that has turned Ukraine’s fields and homes into an immense abattoir. President Joe Biden, most of NATO, and many other nations recognize the crisis, but the world could face a Russian victory—and an eventual escalation of Russian aggression against Europe—solely because of the ongoing drama and inane bickering within the Republican Party.
Immigration reform is a distraction from the importance of America’s leadership role in the world and our support for Ukraine. For those of us who wore a uniform and remember the wind-swept hills and plains of the Fulda Gap, it is critical we pass the current supplemental.
Solon Economist – 2016. This building was sold and torn down since the photo was taken.
The Daily Iowan, the independent newspaper of the University of Iowa, announced this week it is buying the Solon Economist and Mount Vernon Sun beginning Feb. 1. The stated intent is to provide learning opportunities for journalism students. Fine with me. The newspaper seemed likely to fold as it changed hands multiple times since Doug and Lori Lindner sold the Solon Economist in 2011.
It is also fine with the current staff who posted on social media they are positive about the change and hope it will yield more advertising revenue and more subscribers. Presumably deep university pockets will backstop it if new ownership doesn’t make the paper financially successful. Like the employees, I’m optimistic and hopeful for a positive outcome.
My question is about the University of Iowa owning these weekly newspapers, after they bought Mercy Hospital. What’s going on over there? Public entities shouldn’t acquire private businesses whether or not there is an educational purpose. In this the Mercy deal is much more significant in size and community impact. Buying newspapers is in the same vein. Ownership of the Daily Iowan and these new acquisitions is by the non-profit corporation Student Publications, Inc., so there is a firewall between them and the university. The final structure of Mercy under the university is not finalized, yet there is expected to be a firewall there as well.
Because of our relationship working as freelance reporters for the Solon paper, Economist Editor Chris Umscheid publishes my letters to the editor of the 600 subscription paper. There are a few locals who write letters, each with our own distinct issues. There is very little news in the paper, but that’s been the case since Brian Fleck owned it before selling to the Lindners. If the state eliminated the requirement to publish government docs like budgets and council meeting minutes, I doubt the Economist would survive without that revenue. Maybe the acquisition by the Daily Iowan will help.
I’m waiting for the dust to settle. I may have more to say when it does, or after I read the first few editions under the new owners. That’s the news from Big Grove Township on a Wednesday.
Journey Home 
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