Former President Donald Trump at the Cy-Hawk football game Sept. 9, 2023. Photo by Daniel Jacobi II, Iowa State Daily. With Donald Trump bellering about immigrants poisoning our blood, it is hard not to approach 2024 with a measure of fear and a dash of loathing.
Start with decency, as Art wrote, and follow that 'do unto others' quote. We can be better. On other notes.... Art's aphorisms merit more attention. "He grows stronger with every legal challenge because so many people think the whole game is rigged." "Young people are turned off. Older people think it doesn’t really matter,.." . I have friends and relatives from young progressives to 60+ year conservative R's, and I hear that same drumbeat--the game is rigged. And this rigged trope benefits one wing of one party.
Another quote bears mention: "Civil rights belong to those who can afford them." I would add that the same friends and acquaintances are angry because health care is not free, nor is higher education, and housing is unaffordable. So, these same people get mad if others may make some progress on other rights, like civil rights.
Trump has not been charged with actual insurrection, legally impossible to charge him with crime he has not committed. J6 is unraveling like the cheap suits Jack Smith is extralegally bringing against Trump.
I am a Gramscian socialist and I reluctantly accept the capitalist model as the framework of our economy. The Consitution is the framework of our Democracy. If I can accept capitalism into my ideal worker-owned workplace, the Democrats can grow the fk up and accept the fact that their party was hijacked by corporatist neoliberals who aggressively despise and denigrate people in farm country and rural states. The DNC didn't remove the Iowa Caucuses from their schedule because they respect Iowans.
Trump is a jerk and a lout and a crooked business man (crooked meaning he plays by the real rules just like the other billionaires). But Biden is sexually even more creepy than Trump, and is blatantly corrupt. Obama was an empty sock filled with gifts for the elites who groomed him. Clinton a po' boy who could be had for sandwiches and teenaged girls. Bushs dynastically creepy, linked to actual Germans-who-voted-for-Hitler Nazis.
The Duopoly is killing us. No point in taking sides when both parties are utterly corrupt and have rigged nomination systems that can only be blown up, not defeated.
I expect the clever neoliberals to urge Democrats to caucus as Republicans to vote for Nikki Haley next month. Don't do it. Instead, show up to your real caucus and do your best to send an all-Uncommitted slate to the county conventions. If nothing else, let DC know that Iowans would prefer Anyone But Biden (ABB).
Standing up for Crooked Joe Biden and his crime family is not how you stop Gov. Reynolds' agenda. Each phony convoluted and jerry-rigged DNC anti-Trump gambit just strengthens Reynolds' hand.
[the author of this comment put in 1000 hours on Roxanne Conlin's 1982 gubernatorial campaign in an effort to stop Branstad-Reynolds, and has worked on D campaigns in IA, MN and WI]
Wow! So curmudgeon Cullen is actually a closet optimist? Who knew? But actually hard not to be if you truly love Iowa as he obviously does.
Start with decency, as Art wrote, and follow that 'do unto others' quote. We can be better. On other notes.... Art's aphorisms merit more attention. "He grows stronger with every legal challenge because so many people think the whole game is rigged." "Young people are turned off. Older people think it doesn’t really matter,.." . I have friends and relatives from young progressives to 60+ year conservative R's, and I hear that same drumbeat--the game is rigged. And this rigged trope benefits one wing of one party.
Another quote bears mention: "Civil rights belong to those who can afford them." I would add that the same friends and acquaintances are angry because health care is not free, nor is higher education, and housing is unaffordable. So, these same people get mad if others may make some progress on other rights, like civil rights.
Trump has not been charged with actual insurrection, legally impossible to charge him with crime he has not committed. J6 is unraveling like the cheap suits Jack Smith is extralegally bringing against Trump.
I am a Gramscian socialist and I reluctantly accept the capitalist model as the framework of our economy. The Consitution is the framework of our Democracy. If I can accept capitalism into my ideal worker-owned workplace, the Democrats can grow the fk up and accept the fact that their party was hijacked by corporatist neoliberals who aggressively despise and denigrate people in farm country and rural states. The DNC didn't remove the Iowa Caucuses from their schedule because they respect Iowans.
Trump is a jerk and a lout and a crooked business man (crooked meaning he plays by the real rules just like the other billionaires). But Biden is sexually even more creepy than Trump, and is blatantly corrupt. Obama was an empty sock filled with gifts for the elites who groomed him. Clinton a po' boy who could be had for sandwiches and teenaged girls. Bushs dynastically creepy, linked to actual Germans-who-voted-for-Hitler Nazis.
The Duopoly is killing us. No point in taking sides when both parties are utterly corrupt and have rigged nomination systems that can only be blown up, not defeated.
I expect the clever neoliberals to urge Democrats to caucus as Republicans to vote for Nikki Haley next month. Don't do it. Instead, show up to your real caucus and do your best to send an all-Uncommitted slate to the county conventions. If nothing else, let DC know that Iowans would prefer Anyone But Biden (ABB).
Standing up for Crooked Joe Biden and his crime family is not how you stop Gov. Reynolds' agenda. Each phony convoluted and jerry-rigged DNC anti-Trump gambit just strengthens Reynolds' hand.
[the author of this comment put in 1000 hours on Roxanne Conlin's 1982 gubernatorial campaign in an effort to stop Branstad-Reynolds, and has worked on D campaigns in IA, MN and WI]