Time to Put Chuck Grassley Out to Pasture

 Charles Grassley has been in politics only slightly less than I've been alive and I am sixty-four years old. Can you imagine a person doing the same thing year in and year out "representing" your interests? I cannot. In truth, Chuck Grassley has not represented the things I care the most about since I've lived in Iowa. He is pro-Big Ag/monoagriculture, and I am pro-small farm/diversity in crops. He is anti-regulatory and I am for reasonable regulation. He is pro-abortion, and I am pro-choice. He is Team Red, and I am Team Blue-Green. But these are not the primary reason I think it is his time to go into forced retirement. I feel his opponent is formidable this time and worthy of replacing him as he offers new ideas and, yet carries the concerns of our state with him.

Mike Franken checks a lot of boxes for me in terms of his stances on issues, but he also checks the most important box that any politician can check, he is authentic and he is likely to do what he says and say what he means. Not perfectly and not in all cases, I mean we are talking about politics where deals with the devil are made to get what you can. But when you consider Charles Grassley was famously known to be that independently-minded cuss, how far has he moved away from being that Chuck? Consider especially when he was in a position to dictate how things like Supreme

Court nominees would be vetted and how the budget would be appropriated or how taxes would work. In the past, he was unafraid to buck the party line, but under Trump (and since) he has toed it carefully.

Iowans are pragmatic people, they tend to give deference to household names like Chuck Grassley. However, when you consider the values that Mike Franken holds, which are deeply Iowan, it is understandable that voters would see this as a time to choose to put Grassley out to pasture on his 750-acre heritage farm in New Hartford. Franken, who grew up in rural Iowa, served his country in the Navy and, unlike, Grassley, chose to return to Iowa to continue his service as Iowa's next senator. Chuck Grassley loves to tout his 99 county forays but mostly holds them in places not open to the public he serves. Mike Franken will talk to anyone, anywhere. We want a senator who operates like Grassley used to, Mike Franken is an excellent choice for heir apparent.