Why Should I Vote for…?

What’s the point of a debate when the election is for all intents and purposes decided? When Deirdre DeJear and Kim Reynolds took the stage at Iowa Public Television for their only debate in the 2022 race for Iowa Governor, Reynolds had a 17 point lead in the latest Des Moines Register poll. Nor is anyone mistaking Iowa for the purple state it was ten years ago when Barack Obama narrowly won its six electoral votes.

For Reynolds it was a chance to lay the groundwork for her second full term: What can we expect from another Reynolds administration? For DeJear it was a chance to introduce herself and her party to the voters of Iowa: What do Democrats stand for, and how might they govern differently if they are ever given another chance? The subjects under discussion—mostly socio-economic-related, with a bit about abortion past the three-quarters post--were guided by three Iowa journalists, and the candidates for the most part stuck to the topics and didn’t talk over each other. One could learn a lot from the debate, if one knew where to look.

(That would not be news coverage. Outlets I followed the next day focused on abortion—surely a significant issue, but not the be all and end all of life nor a vision for the future of our state.)

A common theme in DeJear’s answers was spreading the economic benefits to all Iowans. Iowa has a budget surplus at this time, which Reynolds has targeted for another round of tax cuts. DeJear argued the tax cuts would have “no impact” on low to moderate income people. She discussed the need to improve access to education and health care, and later to housing, child care and mental health—“putting the tax dollars to work” to “invest” in the future instead of encouraging the well-off to “hoard” their resources. Reynolds derided these ideas as typical Democratic “tax and spend,” while touting her administration’s own pilot programs in mental health care and preschool. DeJear responded that “pilots make sense” but that much of the state is a child care desert; a better policy, she said, would enable providers with a workable business model and child care workers with a reasonable wage. (The current average income is $26,000 a year.)

Reynolds’s main themes were tribalism and tax cuts. The tax cuts were up front: She opened by celebrating her three tax cuts in five years, promising more cuts to come, saying she was helping businesses and retirees stay in the state. But the most common theme in her remarks had to do with protecting us from various thems, and using the power of her office to frustrate the schemes of all those others. She blamed Democrats for closing schools and businesses during the pandemic, as well as "failing" schools, crime, hordes of undocumented immigrants arriving from Mexico, abortions legal up to the instant of birth, and being generally “woke,” whatever any of that really means. She mentioned "parents," which I am not hearing as "people with young children" but as "people who don't want schools to face issues of transgender, homosexuality, or any sexuality." She criticized the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan as unfair because it funded one group of people at the expense of other people like truckers. At the same time, she touted state programs benefiting corn and soy producers, who are also not truckers. Neither are the businesses and retirees that benefit from her ongoing changes to the tax code. The bottom line is that the state’s policy benefits are okay for people like us but not okay for people not like us—a complement to the “libertarianism for me, authoritarianism for you” theme in a lot of our politics.

Reynolds can’t be faulted politically for rallying her existing base, since they’ve carried her to victory before and likely will again. But a state whose policy is driven by resentment and fear of the “not like us” is unlikely to thrive for long in the 21^st century. Iowa has a lot of assets, but if we’re putting “cheap and traditional” up front we’re going to squander them. Can DeJear and other Democrats sell fairness, inclusion, and preparation for the future when a majority of voting Iowans are either satisfied with the way things are and/or threatened by any kind of change?

Video and transcript of the governors' debate are here.

SEE ALSO: 

"Iowa Legislative Session 2022," 8 June 2022

"Condition of the State 2022," 11 January 2022

Move More Week Diary

 

Monday, October 3

Cedar Rapids is observing Move More Week. It got underway at the end of the work day with a group bike ride. The weather was wonderful, which did not hold through the week, so it was a lucky day for it.

We met at the end of 2nd Street SE, and did a quick tour of development projects. Engineer Rob Davis provided an update on flood protection efforts.

In process now is a redo of Riverside Park, which requires relocating the skateboarding facility across the park to accommodate a detention basin (see Lido 2022): 

Construction is underway at the development known as First and First West. The first building to go up is the Pickle Palace--possibly to be renamed, but we hope not--which will contain pickleball courts on the first floor, offices on the second, and a restaurant on the third/top:

Up 4th Street NE is the city's tallest-yet mural:

The former Skogman Realty building on 1st Avenue is being renovated into an apartment building:

We also went by the Colonial Center at 1500 2nd Avenue SE, which the city has purchased and is looking to turn into low-income housing with a non-profit partner, and new playground equipment at Redmond Park. (I peeled off at that point to go home, as did a young woman in the group. I hope she didn't find it awkward or alarming that I was going the same direction she was. Uncrowded cities can be awkward sometimes.)

Wednesday, October 5

The Healthiest State Walk, which occurred in most counties across Iowa today, happened at noon here. The weather forecast had been favorable until this morning, when off-and-on showers were suddenly threatened. All was well over the noon hour, however. A group of over 100 undeterred people met at City Hall, and walked by a circuitous route to Greene Square. (Greene Square is four blocks from City Hall, but our route along the river and back up the Cedar River Trail was maybe a mile.) 

We were rewarded with lunch from Jimmy John's, sponsored by AARP. 

Celebrity sightings included 3rd district Council representative Dale Todd...

...and City Manager Jeff Pomeranz.

I didn't see the mayor. There were no speeches, probably to the relief of all. Just a walk and lunch, over a mid-week lunch hour.

Friday, October 7

Thursday and Friday the city showed off its buses, including the 380 Express to Iowa City.

I was grateful for the opportunity to try the bike rack on the front of the bus, which seems like it would come in handy on occasion. I had visions of me struggling to get the bike on the bus, while the driver and untold numbers of working men and women looked on with increasing impatience, and so I've never tried it. Turns out it's as easy as 1-2-3, with instructions printed right on the device!

1. Squeeze the lever to release the bike rack

2. Heft the bike onto the rack with the front wheel in the yellow thingy

3. Raise the yellow thingy to latch the bike into place

I tried it myself, and did the whole operation in 20 seconds. Have I tried it for real yet? No, but I'm ready when the time comes. The latch was plenty big enough to work for this fat tired e-bike...

...though a bike that is that heavy may not be as secure on bumpy roads?

Irregular bus travelers will want to be aware that the city bus has resumed charging fares for the first time since before the pandemic. Single rides are at $1, down from $1.50 in the before-times, and day passes are $2 down from $3.

Getting around Cedar Rapids remains a largely car-centric endeavor, but it's nice that the city takes time to promote cycling, walking, and the bus. Particularly downtown, with developments like First and First West and the Annex on the Square (formerly the Banjo Block) coming online, offers the prospect of walkable urbanism.

SEE ALSO: "The Future of Downtown Cedar Rapids," 24 June 2022

Letter from Washington (XI): Religion, organized and civil

Franklin School (1869) with a tiny Benjamin Franklin on the roof
(now Planet Word, 925 13th St NW)

Washington, D.C. is a strange place, being at once a town with residents and businesses and such, a museum of national history, and a fortress around working government buildings. Last weekend, in town for a Washington Term advisors meeting, I experienced all three. Walking from my hotel on the southwest side to the program headquarters on the northeast side, I passed through the mostly-empty Capitol grounds, dotted with security guards and barricades.

But on to more inspiring matters!

Churches 

One feature of residential Washington that is both historically interesting and aesthetically pleasing is the plethora of old church buildings. They testify to the variety of faiths present here, as well as the importance of faith to those who built this city.

Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes (1874),
1217 Massachusetts Ave NW

National City Christian Church and Luther Place Memorial Church face each other across Thomas Circle in northwest Washington. I was guided here by my trusty Frommer's guide (cited below).

National City Christian Church (1930),
5 Thomas Circle NW

cupola at National City Christian

Luther Place Memorial Church (1860s),
1226 Vermont Ave NW

Worshipers in these congregations included Presidents James A. Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

These churches might not be as full as they used to be, but they continue to perform vital ministries. National City Christian, for just one example, lists on its webpage refugee and immigration ministry, food pantry, youth ministry, and an LGBTQ community, in addition to weekly worship services. Both Luther Place and Ascension/Saint Agnes were promoting upcoming blessings of the animals.

Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church (1883), 1306 Vermont Ave NW
(formerly Vermont Avenue Christian Church)

Community Church (1903), 1405 15th St NW
(formerly Grace Reformed Church)

 

 

Memorials

As full of religious buildings as Washington is, there are memorials to national heroes everywhere--not just the big names around the Tidal Basin. Frommer's tells us Irish residents celebrated around the statue of John Barry from County Wexford, "Father of the American Navy."

Revolutionary War: Commodore John Barry (1745-1803) in Franklin Park

 

There's much representation of 19th century wars, particularly the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Civil War: General George H. Thomas (1816-1870) in Thomas Circle

civil rights: Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) Council House, 1318 Vermont Ave NW

Civil War: General John A. Logan (1826-1886) in Logan Circle

27 years in Congress: Daniel Webster (1782-1852), 1301 Bataan St NW

 

These memorials are spiritual, too, in their way, contributing to the national spirit--what Gail Gehrig (1979: 2), following Sidney Mead and Robert Bellah, calls the "transcendent universal religion of the nation." We are who we are--for better or worse, I might add--because of who and what we celebrate. Bellah, writing during the Vietnam War, concluded the American civil religion is:

...genuinely American and genuinely new. It has its own prophets and its own martyrs, its own sacred events and sacred places, its own solemn rituals and symbols.... It does not make any decision for us. It does not remove us from moral ambiguity, from being, in Lincoln's fine phrase, an "almost chosen people." But it is a heritage of moral and religious experience from which we still have much to learn as we formulate the decisions that lie ahead (1966: 18-19).

As a visitor, I am regularly reminded that I am part of an ongoing American project... I don't know if residents get used to it?

There were other things to notice as I walked around with Frommer's. Franklin Square, northwest of downtown Washington, features these whimsical seats:

Of course, I had to try them out!... even though they were wet and muddy from the rain:

I passed the Hungarian Embassy, which I include because I'm obsessed with embassies:

Embassy of Hungary, 1500 Rhode Island Ave NW

 

My son Eli starts work here next week:

Resonance, 1121 12th St NW

SOURCES:  

Robert N. Bellah, "Civil Religion in America," Publius (1966): 1-21

Frommer's 24 Great Walks in Washington, D.C. (Wiley, 2009), ch. 13

 Gail Gehrig, American Civil Religion: An Assessment (Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1979)

 

SEE ALSO: 

"Letter from Washington (X): Finding a Quiet Place," 7 March 2022

"Open Streets DC 2021," 7 October 2021