They should have listened

If Democrats only had taken Iowa’s counsel, Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders probably would be president today. I mean, if Joe Biden could beat Donald Trump …

“That thought has crossed my mind.” Mayor Pete told me during his visit to Cedar Rapids last week for a Vote Vets rally.

A young, gay man finished at the top of the Iowa Caucuses alongside an old Socialist who is not even a Democrat. How did that happen? Buttigieg drew a big crowd in Orange City, where guys of his stripe are viewed skeptically. He ended up winning the rural vote. Biden and Harris were way back in the pack.

They went on to a muddled result in New Hampshire. Yeah, Buttigieg is super-smart and all, but … Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina endorsed Biden, and that was that. The former VP ran the primary table.

Iowa lost its leadoff position on the Democratic calendar. Here we are with Buttigieg in CR, and before him Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rallying the faithful in Des Moines. Why come back to Iowa?

The calendar might not be set in stone, Buttigieg suggested.

The new DNC chair is from Minnesota. So it is within the realm of possibility.

“I’m not a rule maker, I’m a rule taker,” the ex-Transportation Secretary said, “but I would tell anyone who would listen about the value of doing four town halls in a day.”

Buttigieg believes he knows how to swing Iowa back to purple, to engage with “future former Republicans.”

Meet people where they are, and stress patriotism.

“We are being tested on nothing less than whether the United States of America is, in fact, the freedom-loving people that we believe and know ourselves to be,” Buttigieg told the Vote Vets ralliers. “I want to be clear. That is not an academic concern. It's one that comes into our everyday lives.”

He feels like it’s three steps forward and two back, except in Iowa the steps forward got lost.

Nearly 2,000 people showed up for him. Buttigieg may have the earnest style to stave off the cynicism of our moment in history. He brought up Rob Sand, running for governor as a centrist, as a suggestion that all is not lost in Iowa for the cause of moderation.

“Look, the American people are not on board with what’s going on,” Buttigieg said.

The polling would suggest so. Trump is under-water on the economy. Gov. Reynolds is most unpopular. The headlines are alarming: People swept up and out without a hearing to a hellhole in El Salvador or worse. Wiping out more rural nursing homes by slashing Medicaid. Firing veterans en masse from the VA. Accepting an airliner from Qatar. Erasing birthright citizenship.

“The American people bow to no king,” Buttigieg declared.

That’s where you start to win hearts and minds, he suggests, by appealing to common values and everyday issues with pragmatism.

He goes on Fox News. He just did a three-hour podcast trying to find people where they are. And, he came back to Iowa for what is the opening of the shadow campaign for the nomination. Pritzker. Beshear. Walz. Emmanuel. AOC, maybe? They are all out working the circuit. If you can play in Iowa you can play anywhere.

Buttigieg suggests that you can play Iowa to win. And so does Walz.

Ignoring Iowa has been catastrophic for the Democratic Party and for the cause of common sense. The far right has been able to spirit away our civic conversation while deconstructing the Bill Of Rights. Our schools are in decline, property taxes are ballooning with no end in sight, and cancer runs amok. Iowa is the perfect place to start reclaiming our stake in democracy.

Bypass it and you end up with Gavin Newsom flying your flag when he looks like he should be working a blackjack table at Reno. Sorry, but Kamala Harris did not register in Iowa or New Hampshire, which should have served as a warning to the nominators on high. Pete Buttigieg was rocking it with Dutch Reformers in conservative enclaves.

Radically moderate Buttigieg believes if you campaign on issues that actually matter to everyday Iowans, starting with freedom, we can reclaim our civility and our civics. Pulling it off is the hard part. We are so jaded that being earnest comes as an affront, yet the crowd in Cedar Rapids lapped it up. Mayor Pete could be president. Should have been, if they had listened to Iowa in the first place.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

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