Strong Populist Congressional Democrats Swept Iowa

Strong populist Democratic women candidates with vigorous populist messages swept away two Republican male incumbents. First District Democrat Abby Finkenauer, 29, an energetic and confident woman from a working-class family (her father's pipefitters' union donated to her campaign) campaigned on health care without discrimination based on age or preexisting conditions. As she gave her acceptance speech, her father stood near her, trying hard not to cry.

Former incumbent Rep. Rod Blum had voted against protecting health care for people with preexisting conditions 10 times yet lied in his ads, now that Obamacare has become more popular, saying that he voted to protect people with preexisting conditions. He wasn't the only Republican to lie about his record.

Blum also featured the misogynistic BoogeyWoman who appeared in many a Republican ad across the country, Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House! Did she have glowing eyes, as she was pictured next to Abby Finkenauer in Rod Blum's ads? She might as well have! Well, the BoogeyWoman ads didn't work. Finkenauer's ads pointed out Blum's lies over and over again.

Democrat Cindy Axne won her debates handily with Third District incumbent Rep. David Young. She spoke frankly, clearly, and without rancor about the issues affecting ordinary people while Young seemed clueless, since his constituents are the rich donors who finance his campaign. He votes 99% of the time with Trump. He's one of the top 10 House recipients of National Rifle Association (NRA) funding ($707,000). He's a puppet, and Axne made that oh so clear, not by dissing Young, but by talking about health care, education, and issues that Young's rich donors don't have to worry about.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack (2nd Dist.) won handily against Republican opponent, Dr. Christopher Peters. Someone noted that Loebsack has always had a physician as an opponent, other than his first opponent, then Republican incumbent former Rep. Jim Leach, who has somehow managed to preserve an aura of respectability despite his voting record compiled ever so politely by Loebsack's LeachWatch. I was appalled. Jim Leach voted against the Civil Rights Voting Act, voted to give oil companies subsidies to develop nuclear power (oil companies and banks continue to receive subsidies; can you believe it?), was the Leach in the Gramm-Bliley-Leach Act that then Pres. Bill Clinton passed, an act that deregulated the banks and led to the stock market crash of 2008.

Democrat J.D. Scholten almost took out incumbent Republican Rep. Steve KingThing, a white supremacist renounced by the national GOP and a fellow Republican, Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), who leads the National Republican Congressional Committee. Rep. Stivers said, “Congressman Steve King’s recent comments, actions, and retweets are completely inappropriate. We must stand up against white supremacy and hate in all forms, and I strongly condemn this behavior.”

Scholten came closer than anyone else ever has. I hope he runs again! Two years is not such a long time and KingThing's supporters are also Trump supporters, and Trump has shown his love for those rural farmers by saddling them with the most disastrous tariffs imaginable. Will they stay true to his bigotry and heroic socking it to the elites despite the lead weights Trump has put on their ability to make a living?

It may sound cruel, but "one funeral at a time" will solve some of the lock that Republicans have on the 4th District and the Governor's mansion. Younger voters and especially women are leaving the Republican Party in droves; many younger voters never joined the party in the first place.

Garry Trudeau inked a brilliant "Doonesbury" cartoon years ago. I still have it on my refrigerator. A radio anchor, a recurring Doonesbury character, interviews a heavy-set balding white man with gray hair. The anchor introduces him: "One Republican who never succumbed to magical thinking is our old friend Jim 'Honest Man' Andrews... So Jim," he continues, "what's your take on what ails your party?"

"Well, it's perfectly obvious," Andrews replies. "The Democrats have vacuumed up all the special interests -- blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays, kids, labor, women, suburbanites... Leaving us with only angry, straight, white, well-armed, evangelical men! And do you know why there's no future for angry, straight, white, well-armed, evangelical men?"

The anchor asks with a smile, "They can't reproduce?"

Andrews angrily agrees, pointing with his finger for emphasis, "Exactly! They need women! That's the problem!"

I did hear of a study where two female mice were enabled to reproduce and produce a baby mouse. Maybe Republican scientists will figure out a way for two angry, straight, white, well-armed, evangelical male mice to reproduce and produce a baby mouse ready for indoctrination. Oh wait. Republicans don't believe in science, at least not in climate science or the origins of the species.