Fight the right foe

It's not the DNC giving Iowans the middle finger

Bernie Sanders campaigns in Iowa before the 2016 presidential caucuses. (Photo: Ed Tibbetts)

President Biden and the Democratic National Committee have made it clear that change is coming.

Iowa's presidential caucuses will no longer be first-in-the-nation.

Still, some Democrats here continue to wring their hands and vow, along with New Hampshire, to fight the decision. And they warn about the confusion and uncertainties over what will happen next, perhaps in the belief this will redound to Iowa’s benefit; that somehow the caucuses will survive amid the uncertainties just as they have in the past when threats have arisen

This is a mistake.

Instead of fighting Biden and the DNC, Iowa Democrats should focus on the real threat to this state.

To borrow David Byrne’s words, it’s the same as it ever was: Republican policies that hollow out rural parts of the state, endanger the health of Iowans, undermine education and ignore the continued loss of young people who are fleeing Iowa for a brighter future.

And this is the short list.

Over the past few days, Kim Reynolds, Chuck Grassley and other top Republicans here have been trying to convince Iowans the DNC is disrespecting them.

Joni Ernst went on Fox News the other day and claimed the Democratic Party had given the “middle finder” to middle America.

What a joke.

It’s too bad Ernst doesn’t care about the leader of her party giving the middle finger to the U.S. Constitution, saying it can now be terminated because nobody will let him steal the 2020 presidential election.

But that’s another column.

This is about Iowa Democrats.

In an article in the Des Moines Register this week, party officials pointed to the uncertainties that inevitably come with change.

Among the doubts: State laws in Iowa and New Hampshire that require them to go first.

I’m not a lawyer, but I don't believe these states can dictate to the DNC how it should run its primary calendar by simply passing a state law. If they could, every state would pass similar laws and move up their primaries.

As the Register reported, an Iowa attorney general’s opinion in 1996 even said the state’s caucus law can’t bind the parties without raising serious constitutional questions.

Still, some Democratic leaders continue to cite these statutes to push back against the DNC’s new calendar.

In truth, what they’re doing is helping Republicans who are gleefully using the issue to tell voters the Democratic Party doesn’t care about them.

Again, what a joke.

It wasn’t the DNC that spent years making it harder for Iowans to vote.

It wasn’t the DNC that robbed Iowa school teachers and other working-class families of their collective bargaining rights.

It wasn’t the DNC that passed a tax cut that gives $67,000 to the average millionaire but only $600 to the typical Iowan.

It’s not the DNC, but Iowa Republicans, who are preparing to take taxpayer money away from the 90% of Iowa kids who rely on public schools so they can give it to a small number of private schools in select pockets of the state.

Despite all this, Iowa Republicans swept the 2022 midterm elections.

I don’t think the reason is that Iowans love Republican policies. They don’t.

Unfortunately, Democrats aren’t offering competitive alternatives.

That Kim Reynolds could win by 19 points in a year when Republicans underperformed across the rest of the country is proof of that. In the process, she pulled a lot of middling GOP candidates across the finish line with her.

It’s not like Reynolds is doing a great job.

For three straight quarters, Iowa’s Gross State Product has shrunk, even though the national economy grew last quarter.

The state’s labor force continues to shrivel, and Iowa still hasn’t recovered the jobs it lost during the pandemic.

There’s a reason Kim Reynolds won’t run for president: None of those carefully shot images of small-town parades and Field of Dreams videos will cover for a shrinking economy, decades of rural decline, deteriorating mid-sized cities and high school and college graduates moving out as soon as they get their diplomas.

A lot has to be done for Iowa Democrats to right their ship. And not all of it is within their control. The Democrats’ national brand is badly damaged among white non-college-educated voters who make up the bulk of Iowa’s electorate. On issues like crime and culture, in particular.

If Democrats are to win some of those voters back, change is needed.

Still, it’s not impossible. In 1994, Republicans swept Iowa much like they did last month. Twelve years later, it was the Democrats who controlled all the levers of state government.

Twelve years is a long time, and there is no guarantee of success. But Democrats won’t get on the road to recovery by wasting time fighting a battle they are sure to lose.

It’s true this change will cost Iowans a cherished if flawed tradition. And state party leaders should try to limit the loss of resources and the party-building benefits that have been a positive byproduct of the caucuses. But rather than fighting the DNC’s reasonable attempt to focus on a changing electorate, Democratic leaders here should focus their attention on building and promoting a bench full of future top-of-the-ticket candidates who can compete against Republicans whose policies are so evidently destructive.

They should also work to craft a more effective message to remind voters that it’s Republicans who threaten Iowans’ basic civil and bodily liberties; that it’s GOP policies that are hurting the wellbeing of our kids and their schools; that Republican budget and regulatory policies continue to foul our air and waterways; that their self-interested myopia will leave Iowa choking on the dust of other states smart enough to position themselves for the future of renewable energy; and that their stale 1980s-era tax policies will never produce the kind of economic growth they falsely and repeatedly promise is just around the corner.

Iowa Democrats need to get to the business of figuring out how to win future elections.

They don’t do that by fighting losing battles. That’s what Republicans in this state want them to do.