2022 set another low bar year for the state of politics in Iowa. Not only were Democrats pushed further out of power in the state of Iowa, we managed to becoming unceremoniously dumped by Democrats for our formerly much vaunted 1st in the nation caucus status. It has been argued for years that caucuses are as undemocratic a process as has ever been invented, but it still sucks when it is your team pulling the plug. This means that Republicans will continue to have their caucuses while the Democrats figure out how to stop the hemorrhaging on a statewide level. Meanwhile Republicans in this state are being looked at as how a party should be run with deep pocket out-of-state corporate and cultural causes running our state's legislative processes.
Fun times to be in Iowan, that's for sure, Hoss. In 2023, we can look forward to Republicans draining more money away from social safety net items in favor of depleting counties tax bases and to skim public education monies to fund charter schools and private/religious schools. Along the way, they will likely make it more unfriendly to be a member of the LGBTQA community and may take a stab at defining marriage in Iowa to be between a man and a woman while simultaneously enforces the most draconian abortion laws that can be legislated and defended in the courts. Add to this pro-ethanol legislation that will further decimate our already pathetic waterways, more handouts to agricultural adjacent business enterprises, and anti-labor legislation to keep our labor pool under-valued. Then, look forward as more investments are made in technical education and higher education looks for additional belt-tightening by letting faculty positions go and increasing adjunct professors while reducing research roles that don't pay for themselves.
With our re-elected governor gunning for a seat at the national table, you can be sure that immigration policy will be talked about while simultaneously ignoring the workforce that makes Big Ag in Iowa grow. There will be the rancorous cries of how Joe Biden is the chief cause of inflation and why Iowans can't have nice things. In other words, look out for the sh#$storm that will be rolling this way after the beginning of the new year.
As for Democrats, you will have the opportunity to take a deep look inside and understand what is possible to do to move the dial in this state and what is not. The stranglehold that Big Ag has on this state is not to be under-estimated. A new mantra may have to be WWFBD? What Would the Farm Bureau Do? So far they have figured out a way to make farmland out of reach for the next generation of independent farmers, they have made the DNR as impotent a state agency as possible and have brain-washed a great number of rural Iowans that Republicans are the only party to vote for. And let's face it, they will run the legislature from now until doomsday unless they are seriously out of step in Iowa's mostly rural counties.
Democrats will need to recognize that unless our candidate pool gets better and the bench gets built up, we are going to be hard-pressed to keep or gain statewide offices. In this case, I want to point at the example of Rob Sand as a way forward. He showed that you can be a watchdog for Iowan's interests and keep your job. Tom Miller, a AG that has done more good for Iowan's was kicked to the curb because he was painted as being out of step with the conservative social agenda. The governor wanted her own AG and, guess what, she got her wish. It is the job of Democrats to show why this is a terrible thing for Iowans.
The GOPandemic that was ushered in November will be hard at work driving their agenda. It will be a difficult two-years, but it could also be the best two years Iowa Democrats have had in a while, if the sh#$storm is as bad as I suspect it will be. Iowans, we've had tornados, windstorms, polar vortices, and even a Derecho, but the 2023 sh#$storm is heading our way and it will leave a CAFO-like mess in its wake.
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