Eight lessons of election week 2020 in Iowa

[progressoid]

Bill Brauch is a former Iowa Democratic Party State Central Committee member and Third District Central Committee chair.

Election week 2020 felt like an anti-gravity bungee jump for Iowa Democrats. We went from the depths of despair on election night, suffering losses we never expected, to huge relief — euphoria even — on Saturday when it was clear Joe Biden had won the presidency. That our next vice president will be a woman of African and Indian descent added to the joy of knowing that Donald Trump’s occupation of the White House will soon come to an end.

But there is no question Iowa Democrats are hurting. We lost statehouse seats we should have won. We did poorly in the U.S. Senate and presidential races. We lost one — maybe two — U.S. House seats. (We were not alone in this. Democrats even lost seats in states Biden won!)

Iowa Democrats wonder what it will take to win again statewide. Some things are clear: we remain strong in Iowa’s larger cities and continue to show strength in suburbs, though we fell short of our success there in 2018. We’ve known for years that we have to do better in rural Iowa but struggle to find a way to accomplish it.

much more...https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2020/11/17/eight-lessons-of-election-week-2020-in-iowa/?fbclid=IwAR3CdOG7yZTscoYVvjsGtkEsbsNLiDQNcXtT9TpxR6sRknRrbS9SRejHWII

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Try this on for size.

Do a mega Grain Deal with China and Eourpe. This was the sour apple in the barrel since Carter. Once the give away money dries up in Rural America,then the shoe pinches in ways they only understand.

[progressoid]

8. I have no hope that reublican farmers are redeemable.

https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/biggest-farmers-stand-solidly-with-trump-poll-shows

Large-scale farmers and ranchers say they will vote in landslide numbers for President Trump this fall, applauding his handling of agriculture and foreign policy, said a Farm Futures poll released on Wednesday. Some 75% of respondents to the nationwide email poll conducted in late July said they would vote for Trump, roughly the same proportion that backed him in 2016.

“Farmers may not have known what they were getting with Trump four years ago, but I think our survey confirms they’ve found comfort in what they received,” said Jacqui Fatka, policy editor for Farm Futures, which directs its coverage toward the biggest agricultural producers in the country. Farmers are a sliver of the U.S. population but their views often reflect rural sentiment. Trump won the rural vote two to one in 2016.

Producers worry about the pandemic and the China-U.S. trade war, but those issues are secondary to matters such as regulatory relief under Trump, said the news site. In 2016, Trump ran on an agriculture platform of tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks and support for corn ethanol. Two-thirds of farmers taking part in the Farm Futures poll gave the president an “A” or a “B” for his handling of agriculture and 63% gave him similar high marks on foreign policy. In a March survey by Farm Futures, 76% agreed with the statement, “President Trump’s tariffs will be worth it in the long run.”

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Read this article as well as

a couple others saying similiar results.

With Tariffs coming to a end next month,and Canada eating our Export Markets for lunch,this will change.

Still expect to see our Farm Economy to take a big beating next year. China is the big kid on the block and we are now on the outside looking in. Trump has allowed his personal interests replace the interest of our Nations interest. Do expect Biden/Harris to fix our Trade Imbalances. Because of our Weak Dollar,China is using their contacts to buy our Commodities at a discount with we as the taxpayer picking up the freight. Right now American Ag Business is living on super cheap money and we know that does not last. And my guess is,Farm Balance Sheets are loaded with debt as a result. With out any forward looking Ag leadership,the 1980's are just lurking around the corner. BTW,the major Political Player in this space just lost his District to a hard core Tea Bagger.

[SharonClark]

2. Good article overall.

One sentence is something I say everytime I hear Grassley on the radio and there is no Democratic response, even when Harkin was in the Senate, "We have to seek out local media and offer ourselves up for interviews. We have to do these things year-round, not just during election season.".

Polk County is loud and proud. We need to boost and encourage the county parties in all 99.

[progressoid]

9. +1

[judesedit]

3. Recount the votes for those races...or were they destroyed or erased already?

The GOP thieves have been scheming for decades to hold onto the power in down ballot races one way or the other. I don't trust them for one minute. And I don't understand with all the recounts going on, why none are for these races, only for the presidency????

[rurallib]

4. Iowa votes with traceable paper ballots and has a form of audits

There is a major total recount going on in district 2 for the US House race - some 394,000 ballots. The margin was so close that a recount was mandated I believe.

I ain't saying there wasn't any finagling in Iowa, but I will say with traceable paper ballots it sure cuts down on the opportunities. Unless a race isn't real close, there probably is not a good reason to recount. And somebody will have to pay for it.

[judesedit]

7. Anyone voting in person on e-machines should get a receipt like we get using atm's

There are no legitimate excuses for not giving one, except they won't be able to manipulate the vote tally if they do imo. We can copy a paper ballot for proof of our vote if we want before sending. I'm glad Iowa is able to trace paper ballots if necessary. Other states probably can to. It's the electronic machines that are the problem. It seems all the problems started with them....disregarding the hanging chad fiasco which was created to install Bush.

[rurallib]

5. One thing I almost never hear anyone talk about in Iowa is media especially radio.

Specifically radio, but also TV and daily newspapers.

Name one even slightly left radio station in Iowa. And NO NPR is not left. Maybe 30 years ago when Newt came on the scene but NPR has been intimidated into a nice little voice of non-committal on nearly everything.

There are very few over-the-air liberal station in the whole country, let alone Iowa. Yet Iowa's AM dial from stem to stern is blanketed with extreme right wing radio from WHO in Des Moines to WMT in CR to WOC in Davenport and (IIRC) KXEL in Waterloo and stations I can't remember in Council Bluffs and Sioux City.

That is the big stations. Seems like every town of a thousand especially in Western Iowa has a thousand watt station. And the farmers listen all day every day. And those stations are played in gas stations and retail stores and restaurants day in and day out.

So long before we knock on any door or call any phone in a rural area the groundwork for conversations has been laid and it is conservative talking points. These talking points are reinforced by small weekly conservative papers and the Sinclair and Fox stations that re the 'local' TV stations.

In this game we come in in the fourth quarter trailing 28 to 0 and try to play catch up. It is really really hard when you are that far behind.

[progressoid]

6. This!!! Absolutely.

I found out how bad it was last week. I had to reprogram the stations in our car. As I was scanning, I was shocked at how many new right wing stations there are. I lost count. And they aren't just AM stations either.

Of course some of them are religious stations. But their programing is ultra-conservative.