U.S. State Department. Photo Credit – Wikimedia Commons
Efforts to advance diplomatic goals are grinding to a halt with the U.S. election seven weeks away. Among the key initiatives that slowed are negotiating an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and updating a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, according to Laura Rozen.
As the United Nations General Assembly opens next week, President Joe Biden is expected to give his last speech before the body. He is perceived by other members to be not that interested in the U.N. as he closes his storied career in politics. A lot in diplomacy world depends on the results of the Nov. 5 election and everyone knows it.
Our choices for president couldn’t be more stark when it comes to diplomacy and foreign affairs. With Kamala Harris, we expect a continuation of Joe Biden’s rebuilding of international relations made worse by the 45th president. With election of Donald Trump, we expect another disaster with open grifting on the part of the billionaire convicted criminal.
Diplomacy and America’s stature in the world matter to most of us. There really is no choice but to elect Harris if we want to continue to address world problems in which the United States is deeply engaged. I know that’s what I will do.
On a cool, clear evening, a group of 20 local folks met in the nearby city for a house party hosted by Christina Bohannan’s campaign. At 49 days remaining in the campaign, the ask by the organizers was modest: volunteer for the campaign every week or two, or from four to eight times before the election. A line to sign up for volunteer shifts queued in front of the organizer’s table after everyone introduced themselves.
The big news and discussion at the event was Ann Selzer’s Iowa-Des Moines Register poll which released over the weekend. Selzer found Trump’s lead in Iowa deteriorated from +18 against Biden to +4 against Harris. “It also shows a sharp divide between men and women likely voters — Trump leads with men 59% to 32% over Harris. Harris leads with women 53% to 36%.” Four points is still a significant hill to climb, but damn!
This makes sense in Iowa where the Republican Governor and legislature pummeled public education and women’s reproductive rights during the last two general assemblies. Women are expected to play a significant role not only in this election but in restoring the American Dream.
The American what?
When I came of age after finishing graduate school, Ronald Reagan was president and despite an advanced degree, military service, and being a white male with the privilege that means, the American Dream was the stuff of legends. When I married soon after graduate school, the American Dream was on life-support. It existed for my parents, but not for me and certainly not for our child. Is the term “American Dream” still relevant? We hope so.
I’m working on a project with Thom Hartmann, whose new book, The Hidden History of the American Dream: The Demise of the Middle Class — And How to Rescue Our Future is driving this line of thought. My review will be out the week the book is published in early October.
For now, a gathering of 20 people bonded in the enterprise of electing Kamala Harris president and gaining a Democratic majority in the U.S. House will suffice. The American Dream has little chance as long as Republicans rule in our government. Who doesn’t want to be a part of electing Democrats in 2024?
In advance of her Sept. 13 trip to Johnson County, Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst spent time with the author talking Iowa politics.
The interview covered the prospects for Democrats to gain House seats in November, impacts of the new private school voucher program, converting support for access to abortion into votes, water and air quality in Iowa, transparency about the recent school shooting in Perry, and other topics.
The Truman Fund fund raiser she is headlining on Friday the 13th asks the question, “Tired of Being Scared?” Learn more about the event at this link.
During the interview we referred to the Harkin Institute conference on Sept. 25 and 26, Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health. Learn more about the conference here.
The full, unedited audio of my interview with Leader Konfrst can be found here.
When I arrived in Paris in September 1974, the place was emptied of most of its people. I did not understand the cultural phenomenon of millions of French people flocking to the coast, countryside, and other vacation destinations, leaving urban areas almost deserted. A few shops were open in Paris that summer, although not many. Traditionally les grandes vacances happen in August, yet people were gone into the first week of September that year.
With my book at the printer, I’ve been taking an August hiatus from work on the second part of my memoir. Life goes on and for me there is no vacation. That’s mostly because there is no extra money to pay for lodging, meals and travel excursions. Vacationing is anathema to my current personality anyway. There are few destinations to which I am drawn these days.
Like the weekends during my trip to Brittany, les grandes vacances form part of my outlook while I spend more time in our Midwestern kitchen processing garden produce. August is about tomatoes, apples, leafy green vegetables and such. There are a few cucumbers and squash left in the refrigerator to be used. It’s not a bad tradeoff with traveling to the mountains or some such.
Four candidates for the Democratic nomination to be county auditor. (l to r) Neuman Abuissa, Shannon Patrick, Alex Stanton, and Julie Persons. Persons won on the first round of voting.
Saturday was the special convention to elect a nominee for Johnson County Auditor. Mayor of Swisher Julie Persons won on the first ballot. I know Julie from her involvement in the House District 91 campaign and believe she will make a good county auditor. In fact, all four of those running were qualified.
What I like most about the convention is the chance to talk to people I seldom see any more. In August 2024, there are way fewer of my cohort involved with county politics. Between deaths, retirements, and people moving away, I am becoming a survivor. If there were more interest in county politics in my precinct, I would have stepped down long ago.
I sat with a friend who recently published their memoir and is awaiting publication of another book. We talked about books and topics we choose to write about. They were an early reader of my memoir and we’ve done a lot together since we met in 2005.
Of course there were my local buddies. We are getting too old for this stuff, yet the fact is few younger people are willing to step up. We do what we want with regard to politics, hoping to advance Democratic causes and elect our candidates.
I commented to someone I watched more television last week than I have in the last ten years. It just felt right to have the Democratic National Convention on in the background. It seems good that Kamala Harris got the nomination and there are only 72 days left until the election. The excitement of a younger, energetic presidential candidate can be sustained that long without breaking pace. I plan to do two or three things daily related to the campaign. Before we know it, election day will be here.
In the meanwhile, there is kitchen and garden work to do today. Not before I take a long walk on the state park trail and consider the wonder that is August.
I have been watching the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago as much as I can. Tonight, I plan to tune into CSPAN only for Kamala Harris’ speech. I am worn out with all the talking and, as Michelle Obama suggested, am ready to “Do Something!”
These quadrennial conventions are a chance to bring out the long-time members of the party to remind us of who we are. The Reverend Jesse Jackson was pushed on stage in a wheelchair and waved. Like Jackson, some of our most popular figures are aging.
President Biden, former presidents Obama and Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi looked as if they lost the edge of their speaking ability. This is distressing regarding Barack Obama in that he is only 63 years old. Their delivery wasn’t as sharp as other speakers or as a former version of themselves. Their speaking ability did not match the energy of the delegates in the arena. Each of these speakers reminded us of who we are as Democrats and in doing so, played an important role in the convention. My only beef was that Bill Clinton should have learned how to pronounce our Vice President’s first name.
Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama did well with delivery of their speeches. Oprah Winfrey got a prime speaking spot and gave us a history lesson. The women fared better in speech delivery than the men. Any more, that just seems normal to me.
As speakers keep reminding us, there are only 75 days left until the election. It’s go time. It’s time to do the things we know we should do to get out the vote and bring everyone we can under the tent.
It will be challenging, yet we are not going back.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks at the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 13, 2010. Photo credit – Wikimedia Commons.
My Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks told a whopper in her August 18 newsletter to constituents.
“Since the Biden-Harris Administration took office, Medicare Part D premiums have skyrocketed, increasing by 57%,” Miller-Meeks wrote. I am on Medicare Part D drug coverage, so I pulled out my records. They show a much different story.
In 2021, the year Biden took office, my monthly premium for Part D was $15.50. In 2022, it was $10.50; in 2023, $7.50; and this year the monthly premium is $0.50 per month. The last is not a typo. I called the insurance company to make sure they did not make a mistake. They told me they didn’t. In addition, the coverage has gotten better.
These are not skyrocketing prices, in fact they are the opposite. I don’t know where the Congresswoman got her information but she should stop listening to those people and focus on real problems. Where I come from we call that sticking to one’s knitting.
I understand the Congresswoman is not a fan of the Biden administration. However, using her official newsletter to promote blatant falsehoods should be out of bounds for her or for any public official.
We can do better by electing Christina Bohannan to replace Miller-Meeks in the First Congressional District on Nov. 5.
~ A version of this letter was published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Aug. 22, 2024.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Provenance unknown.
Today begins the Democratic National Convention. Many of our most active Democrats will be attending the four-day event at the United Center in Chicago. That means a break for the rest of us.
I am interested in the speeches. I usually watch the keynote address in which a rising star gets a chance for a national audience. This year, Joe Biden will give the keynote address. For those who have been following his rise to the presidency and administration, there will be no surprises as he mentions some of his many accomplishments and makes the case for electing Kamala Harris. I plan to watch Biden’s speech, if not live, then afterward.
In 1980 we heard Ted Kennedy’s concession speech. In 1988, in a surprisingly long speech, we heard from Bill Clinton. In 2004, the convention introduced us to Barack Obama. I don’t expect any memorable speeches this year as conventions have become carefully scripted. The challenges of the current campaign are formidable. There is no place for distraction or personal ambition. We must return to the words of Ted Kennedy:
I speak out of a deep belief in the ideals of the Democratic Party, and in the potential of that Party and of a President to make a difference. And I speak out of a deep trust in our capacity to proceed with boldness and a common vision that will feel and heal the suffering of our time and the divisions of our Party. (Ted Kennedy, 1980 Democratic National Concession Speech, Aug. 12, 1980).
Every indication is that Kamala Harris will do what Kennedy suggested. There is an energy behind her nomination and we hope it will carry us to every city and hollow, every village and farmstead, to turn out votes for the Harris Walz ticket.
Republicans have been hard at work creating restrictions on the ability to vote. On Sunday, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported on one part of a 2021 law that went into effect: moving any registered voter who missed voting in a single general election from active to inactive status. This is a sort of head fake in that an inactive voter can vote in the next general election. What we know is activists will work hard to find every potential voter, get them registered and to the polls, regardless of obstacles Republicans throw up. Try though they might, Republican election laws represent tinkering around the edges of a movement we hope will carry the election.
I have realistic expectations about Iowa. Our hope is three of the four Democrats running for Congress will be elected. We hope Republican attacks on public schools will yield us votes. We hope the newly approved law that bans abortion when a “fetal heartbeat” or cardiac activity is detected, before many people know they’re pregnant, will convert into votes from women to carry us back to majorities in the state house. Those are our hopes yet they may be dashed by the rough politics of 2024. Returning to Ted Kennedy:
And someday, long after this convention, long after the signs come down and the crowds stop cheering, and the bands stop playing, may it be said of our campaign that we kept the faith. (Ted Kennedy, 1980 Democratic National Concession Speech, Aug. 12, 1980).
May it be said of our party after the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we found our faith again.
The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House by Nancy Pelosi is a solid read from a person at the center of American politics since first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1987. In a time when the average American adult finishes just over five books per year, Pelosi’s book is perfect. It is an easy read, about timely topics, and general enough to interest an average reader through to the finish.
Pelosi emphasizes the book is not a memoir. It is the story of her time as the 52nd Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is also the story of Democratic accomplishments during the last 37 years. We Democrats don’t tell our story in clear, measured prose often enough. More books like this are needed.
While I lived through this period as an adult, Pelosi pulls a narrative together that not only rings true to the times, it leaves out much partisan drivel a lesser writer might include. It brings focus on important events and legislation from her unique platform.
Some say Nancy Pelosi is a lightening rod in politics. What I say is she is a person with an accomplished life who wrote a book well worth reading.
Democrats are riding a blue wave of excitement caused by Biden’s announcement he wouldn’t accept the nomination for president, Kamala Harris garnering enough votes from delegates to the Democratic National Convention to clinch the nomination, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz joining the ticket. Meanwhile, back at the country club, Republicans gathered and griped last Tuesday.
Ensconced at one of their favorite watering holes, the Cedar Rapids Country Club, Republicans laid out their grievances. They criticized President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Governor Walz. RPI chair Jeff Kaufmann had a take, Chuck Grassley did, too. Former Iowa Governor and ambassador to China Terry Branstad said, “a presidential candidate from California was ‘the scariest thing I can think of.'” Kaufmann thought Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro would get the nod for vice president and accused the vice president, whose spouse is prominently Jewish, of antisemitism in picking Walz. Such malarkey suggests they may have had a cocktail or two in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, even if I know many of them are teetotalers. Other than in the local newspaper, the event got little attention.
I have three comments for Republicans gathered to complain at the country club:
Joe Biden is not running for president
You can’t always get what you want.
Get over it.
Country club membership is not something to which I aspired. I’ve been inside the Cedar Rapids Country Club a few times, for company holiday parties and political events, yet who even belongs to a country club? People with means. When Robert Reich talks about rich fat cats I suspect more than a couple were in attendance at Tuesday’s grievance party. Working people were… working.
That’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans. While regular people are busy contributing to society, Republicans are off at the country club making the rules. Wealth and political influence have the power to set the rules of the game. Jeff Kaufmann, Chuck Grassley and Terry Branstad are all aware of and have been participants in this dynamic.The 2023 legislative session provides a textbook example of the influence of wealth.
In May 2023, Governor Reynolds signed Senate File 228 into law. Under the change, Iowans hurt in truck crashes would only be able to get up to $5 million in a lawsuit. With her action, Iowa became the first state in the country to legally cap liability damages against trucking companies. Capping liability has long been on the trucking industry’s to-do list. With the Republican trifecta, they were able to get it done. This is a single example among many as to how wealth and power set the rules regular folk live under.
When Donald Trump announced for president in November 2022, it was in a speech to those gathered at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida. Surrounded by allies, advisers, and conservative influencers, Trump delivered a relatively subdued speech, rife with spurious and exaggerated claims about his four years in office, according to CNN. His decision to announce two years before the general election may have been good for Donald Trump. He doesn’t understand, and probably doesn’t care, that that’s not how we do presidential politics. That’s another difference between Democrats and Republicans: we care about the rules of the game.
July 21 was the day President Biden announced he would not accept the nomination of his party for another term as president. It is now 20 days later and we have Vice President Kamala Harris officially nominated for president along with a vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, announced on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The campaign raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and recruited thousands of volunteers. Excitement is in the air. Something is bugging me. I don’t want to be disappointed again.
I’m referring to the 2016 election. Like many Democrats I worked hard to elect Hillary Clinton. She may not have had a chance in Iowa, yet we felt the rest of the country would pull through for her. As far as we know, they did not and we know what happened next. After the 2020 election, we must be prepared for shenanigans in November.
Attorney Marc Elias believes Republicans already have a plan to steal the 2024 election. “I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election (in November),” Elias told Rolling Stone Magazine. “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.”
The Republican plan goes something like this, (h/t Iowa Democrat Kim Mathers):
Position Republican election deniers on election boards in swings states and across the country. Rolling Stone and American Doom identified nearly 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists, currently working as county election officials. These officials have questioned the validity of elections or delayed or refused to certify results. At least 20 of them have refused or delayed certification in recent years.
County election boards with election denier members would refuse to certify elections where their candidate loses. This results in state results that can’t be certified, they assert. If they can deny 270 electoral votes to a candidate other than theirs, the election goes to the U.S. House of Representatives. There, each state gets one vote and a simple majority wins. In this scenario, someone who lost in the electoral college and who lost the popular vote could be installed as president.
This scenario doesn’t keep me up at night. It does nag at me. Republicans, according to Elias, “are counting on not just that they can disrupt the election in big counties, they are counting on the fact that if they don’t certify in several small counties, you cannot certify these statewide results.”
By all accounts, the November election is expected to be close. Harris has multiple paths to 270 electoral votes and those paths depend upon fair play in the conduct of our elections. Because our election system has been so bulletproof, we take it for granted there will be fair reckoning of votes cast.
We mustn’t lose sleep over concerns about Republican shenanigans because most of us don’t control what election officials may do. Our election system held steady in the past, and we must trust it will again. With awareness of the potential disruptions, let us hope such awareness is proper inoculation against disappointment.
Journey Home 
You must be logged in to post a comment.