(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Iowa [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-22 You could be here. It’s less than a year till the 2024 Iowa Caucuses, and it’s time to get busy. “Huh?” you say. “I thought the Democratic Party moved the first primary to South Carolina.” True, but the Republican Party didn’t. Their opening salvo is scheduled for Monday 22 January next year. (Here is the 2024 Primary Schedule from Election Central.) This is a huge opportunity for the Democratic Party. Prospective presidential candidates, and just plain party leaders, should start right now scheduling events in Iowa. This is our opportunity to define the Republican Party and their candidates to our benefit. To do that, we should use the most unpopular and harmful parts of the Republican agenda in our messaging. And we should also use this as an opportunity to expand our constituency. Popular and Unpopular One of the least popular aspects of the Republican agenda is their drive to stop legal abortion. Democrats should attack this issue directly. We should make an appeal to the evangelical Christian community to repudiate the anti-abortion stance of churches and Republican candidates. The basis of the Christian faith is love and the forgiveness of sins. What is loving about preventing someone who needs an abortion from getting one? We should call on all Christians to live up to Christian beliefs. Not only is keeping abortion legal the right thing to do, it’s smart politically. Even if we can’t get people to vote for Democratic candidates, we might be able to stop them from voting for Republicans on this issue. But, just on first principles, the Democratic Party should get its share of evangelical Christians. One reason we haven’t is because we literally never ask for their votes. And at the same time, in backing legal abortion we are aligning ourselves with the clear majority of voters, who want abortion to be legal. Even in very conservative areas of the country. Much of the Republican support in Iowa comes from the Christian community in west Iowa. It is important for Democratic candidates to go to this area and talk. And listen. We need a presence in west Iowa, because that’s the opportunity to build power in Iowa for the Democratic Party. Which, in a close election, could turn into a Democratic presidential victory. Expanding Our Constituencies The Democratic Party should also use this as an opportunity to expand our constituencies to small farmers and small businesses. This is a natural constituency for our party, which is supposed to help working people. Farmers and small business owners are working people. They also run businesses, but our party is a better home for them than the Republican Party. For one thing, they struggle to get healthcare at an affordable price. We should move to a better healthcare plan (Healthcare for All), and use that to attack the Republican Party on the issue of healthcare costs. But at least with the Affordable Care Act, we did something for them. We should also adopt and promote much better agricultural policy. Our policy should be based on increasing the health of the soil, not supporting big business, which really keeps small farmers as serfs. If we could split off small farmers and small business owners from the Republican Party, it would doom their party. Go on the attack in Iowa. Republican Failure You may well have seen my opinion of Republicans before: The Republican Party is not a legitimate political party. The Republican Party does not have the good of the country at heart. The opportunity in Iowa is to take down the Republican brand. By doing that, we weaken all their candidates, which helps us regardless of who wins the Republican nomination. I’m actually quite keen to run positive political campaigns. The country needs an attractive and beautiful vision of the future—a future worth working for. Ideally, we’d work with the Republicans on common goals, with some give and take in the normal political process where the parties respected each other as representatives of a large share of the people. But the Republican Party has become so toxic that it is impossible to work with them. They must be defeated. It’s only when they are defeated that they will reform. And until they reform, we can’t find enough common ground to benefit the American people by working with them. Our message to the voters in Iowa should highlight the terrible things Republicans are trying to do and contrast that with what we’ve done for people and want to do. We should do that by picking the policies of the Republican presidential candidates and attacking the Republican Party for standing for those policies. For example, Nikki Haley has a plethora of bad policy. Examples: She says she will stand up for the “unborn”. “Unborn” is a lie. A fetus is not a little human. See here. She’s for “protecting our elections”. She’s against medical care for people. As governor, she rejected Medicaid expansion. She’s a gun nut. In SC, she signed a bill that repealed gun regulation. She expanded concealed carry. She backed elimination of laws on gun permits and training. She wants to “reform” the UN. As UN ambassador she threatened other countries with retaliation by the U.S. if they didn’t toe the Trump line. This alone is disqualifying from office. She backed repeal of the Iran deal, which was the most effective means of reining in Iran’s program for producing nuclear weapons. By repudiating that deal, the Trump Administration made the world less safe from nuclear war. What about Ron DeSantis? He’s a good weather vane for what the Republicans stand for, even if he doesn’t get into the presidential race. He’s a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus. These are the people who tried repeatedly to repeal ACA. It has been a hotbed of support for D. Trump. When you think of the Freedom Caucus, think of Jim Jordan. He tried to limit funding for Robert Mueller’s investigation into D. Trump’s ties to Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign. He thinks of himself as a Ronald Reagan clone. He wants to propagandize the public school system. Consistent with Republican values, he opposes teaching truth in the schools. He opposes Critical Race Theory, which should be taught in the public schools. (See more on stopping DeSantis.) He was instrumental in opposing efforts to limit damage to the public from Covid-19. He’s wrongheaded on immigration, apparently thinking that the problem is the border. DeSantis is also against freedom. That’s what the Republican war on the LGBTQ+ community represents. They only like freedom if it’s for them. Others? Not so much. More information about DeSantis’s campaign finance is on Ballotpedia. Side Benefit Campaigning in Iowa has a side benefit for Democrats. Not only does it give us an unfettered opportunity to attack Republicans and their crazy ideas, but it’s good practice for running a presidential campaign. Go Get ’Em Democrats! Run, don’t walk, to Iowa! There’s gold in them thar, uh, well, not exactly hills. Fields? The Democratic Party decided to move the presidential primary process to other states. But it would be foolhardy for Democratic candidates to follow suit. The Republican caucuses in Iowa are a great opportunity to make political hay. What better for Iowa? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/22/2154454/-Iowa Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/