15 Passenger Van Antics

Look, my feelings on Iowa Senate Democrats getting a new minority leader have evolved quickly over the past week or so. First, I was Team “Let’s Re-Arrange The Deck Chairs on The Titanic” and then I was Team “Well If You Bring A Butter Knife To A Gun Fight, You’re Gonna Get Shot” and now I’m Team “We Don’t Have Time For This Shit, Get It Together Already.”

So, if you’re new here: last week the Iowa Senate Democrats replaced Senator Zach Wahls as minority leader. Wahls is 31, telegenic, and a prolific fundraiser, three things you would have thought the State Democrats would have wanted to put front and center given the fact that the national gravy train that was the Iowa Caucuses is no more. My initial gut reaction: ‘Who The Fuck Is Driving This Clown Car?’ Iowa Democrats have been coasting on the fumes of caucus fundraising and launching President Obama to the nomination for over a decade now. Their candidate selection for Governor has been either uninspiring (see: Jack Hatch, the old white man who had to shave his mustache to avoid being confused with Terry Branstad), finished just short of the line (see: Fred Hubbell, who wasn’t that bad, really.) or have been hampered by idiotic notions about what voters are willing to vote for, (see: Deidre DeJear.)

The ground beneath them shifted rapidly and now they’re up to their necks in quicksand initially my reaction was, “Oh great, they’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Iowa Democrats have to break the Trifecta next cycle or make a significant dent in it, otherwise, they’re done. I don’t want to embrace the defeatism of conceding Iowa to Team Red, because it’s something Democrats do far too often to their detriment, but if they can’t get their shit together enough to break the Trifecta or dent it and I mean hard, then bring in the bleach and the pressure washers because heads are going to have to roll. 

However, then, I read a little more. Turns out Wahls wanted to fire two staffers who had been in the Senate for ages and either thought he had the support of his caucus or just didn’t bother to check and the knives came out for him shortly thereafter. That gave me pause. I know a lot of online types are big on getting away from what they view as the crusty old guard, and I get that. If you want to get young people to engage and actually vote, it helps to have a younger face in a prominent position in your party. Age does (sometimes) bring wisdom and if I want anything from Iowa Democrats right now, it’s competence. 

I figure if Wahls tried to do this and either didn’t or couldn’t get his caucus behind him, then what did you expect to happen if you bring a butter knife to a gunfight? Iowa Democrats didn’t waffle, they were decisive and made a change. But here’s the catch: if you’re going to make this change, then you better deliver the goods. It’s all on the crusty old guard now.

The plot, however, thickened still further: former Iowa Senate Leader Mike Gronstal lost his lobbying gig over “his involvement in Senate Democrats’ recent removal of Sen. Zach Wahls as their leader.” Guess who got the two staffers in question their jobs? Oh, that’s right, Mike Gronstal.

It’s easy to read all this and leap to the obvious conclusion that something smells about all this– do I think there was perfidy on the part of Gronstal? Probably not. I’m sure he was just standing up for folks he thought highly of and the man held the line as Senate Majority Leader against the Republican agenda we’re all now getting to wallow in, so I’m not prepared to cast him as the villain here. Wahls, who has plenty of reason to feel bruised and bitter here, publicly has said all the right things. Wherever you land on the inside baseball of it all, what it really exposes is a deeper problem that cuts across Iowa’s politics and influences its policy-making.

“Well, we’ve always done it this way.”

There are a core group of people at the very top of the circus in this state to whom that is a credo. They don’t want things to change, because they’ve always done things a certain way and that way works out just fine- for them. If, say, a changing and diversifying population threaten to undermine the ‘way things have always been’ well, then you go on the attack. You play to your base and indulge in the politics of fear. This sentiment is the reason our water is polluted- because the people at the top trust big ag to regulate their own pollution. It’s the reason we’ve seen a Governor roll out an agenda to protect her base and give her donors whatever they want.

It’s also the reason why State Democrats won’t get serious about pollution. It’s why they knee-capped both Ras Smith and Deidre DeJear in the last election- because a state that voted twice for Obama obviously would never elect a person of color to the Governor's mansion. They won’t take on Big Ag, because they’re scared. They won’t run candidates of color for major offices because they think rural voters won’t vote for them. They’re so scared of offending rural voters that they’re not even talking to them anymore. 

I understand the impulse to rally around the flag of ‘we’ve always done it this way’ I really do. Boats, after all, are safe in the harbor- but that’s not what boats are for. And if your entire Senate caucus can squeeze itself into a fifteen-passenger van, you should probably consider leaving the parking lot and going for a drive.