It’s hard to know where to start with the pretentious, stereotyping performance from liberal hack Trip Gabriel in the New York Times last week. It was a repulsive piece, scoffing at Burlington and pretty much all of rural Iowa. But let’s start with the assertion the only reason why Democrats are losing is that Iowans are racists.
In what can only generously be considered a career-ending move, former Iowa Senate Majority Whip Tom Courtney, D-AFSCME, called all his friends and neighbors racists if they didn’t vote for him and Biden, an all too familiar move in today’s political world of dirty democrat politics.
Democrats honestly wonder why they are losing rural Iowa. My first suggestion? Stop calling Iowans a bunch of racists. This is the lazy and out-of-touch explanation for Trump’s win in Des Moines County, only 4 years after Obama won there by 18 points.
Rather than blaming the voters for their losses, the Democrats should take a critical look at their own failures. The first supports radical policies only relevant in Brooklyn, San Francisco, and the comments section of a Vox article on the 1619 Project. When you’re talking about banning cow farts and putting Robert Francis (Beto) O’Rourke in charge of gun policy (“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15”), how do you think rural Iowans will respond? The constant drumbeat of raising taxes, more regulation, fewer freedoms, and wokeness across the board is what’s driving the Iowa Democrat Party and their candidates. THIS is why you’re losing – Iowans are rejecting your progressive agenda.
Gabriel pins all his/Democrats’ hopes on an infrastructure bill. It’s absurd to believe more than $5 of that legislation will end up in Des Moines County. It’ll be the same corrupt waste of tax dollars the Obama stimulus was: payouts to left-wing donors like the 2021 version of Solyndra and advancing anti-Iowa policies like the Green New Deal.
Secondly, the Democratic party has a candidate problem – they struggle to recruit quality, everyday Iowans that match the districts they’re looking to serve and, especially in this last cycle, their grassroots efforts.
Real Estate mogul turned folksy, puffy vest wearin’, aw-shucks yokel? Iowans not only saw through Theresa Greenfield’s inauthentic ruse but they were also insulted by it–as if she was making fun of them.
Not only that, but during the 2020 cycle, the Democrats phoned it in on grassroots activities. Who knows if it was their paralyzing fear of the virus or sheer laziness, but Iowans expect to get to know the people who are going to be representing them. They ask the hard questions, they demand straight answers, they want to hear how your policies will affect them. You can’t just have some rando blowing up cell phones with text messages. To be successful in Iowa, you’re going to need a serious ground game, outreach, and getting out to see ALL the voters, not just the big city or big donor ones.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, rural Iowans didn’t leave the Democrat Party; the Democrat Party left them.
