Iowa

Last edited Fri Mar 29, 2019, 08:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Remember when we were KNOWN as first in the nation in education? KNOWN as remarkable stewards of the land, and tops in crop and livestock production? KNOWN and respected everywhere we went for a strong work ethic and character?

The state's conservative drift has altered all of that. The fabric of our very identity has been shredded by mean-spirited and divisive public policy championed by Republicans doing the bidding of deep-pocketed masters by way of ALEC.

We MUST ask--what has been the response of our party's state-level organization charged with shoring up identification with and support for the values and policy efforts of the Democratic Party? Outside of Polk County it's been largely nonexistent. I suspect the weakness at the state level here is merely one example out of many illustrating how the Democratic Party as a national institution is weak and withering.

The Iowa Democratic Party has failed to answer the challenge. There is no coordinated effort to counter the eminently coordinated machinations of the Republican Party: fetal heartbeat bills, open carry/no permit, corporate tax "incentives" (giveaways), gerrymandering, voter suppression, stagnant education funding, cuts to social services, rigging judicial selection, stacking the Utilities Commission, eviscerating the DNR and funding for state parks...

Sick of it...and sick of feeling helpless and insular in the absence of any centralized support to make it otherwise. Although we try to hold the line against the red tide that washes over us, my rural county-level party organization is flailing.