SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
November 19, 2020
Sullivan’s Salvos 11/24/20
In this edition:
*Happy Thanksgiving!
*Governor’s Mask “Mandate”
*Congratulations Zach!
*More on Iowa Democrats
*Did You Know?
*Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to Salvos readers! In many ways, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. (Imagine that coming from a fat guy, huh?)
Actually, I love the idea of giving thanks. It is a simple act that does not happen enough.
While I am at it – thanks to all of you who read Salvos each week. And a special thanks to those of you who follow up by sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it! Happy Thanksgiving!
*Governor’s Mask “Mandate”
A conservative friend of mine emailed me after the Governor’s address to the state, and asked, “Can I now expect to see some praise for Governor Reynolds in this week’s Salvos?” I wish I could answer that with a “yes”. But I can’t. Here is why:
Her mandate has WAY too many caveats, and those caveats are confusing. Mandates need to be clear to be effective. Can you be unmasked in a grocery store? Apparently, so long as you are there under 15 minutes. And stay 6’ apart. And there are 24 or less people there. So if you are there 12 minutes, and mostly over 6’, but under 6’ for about 3 minutes, and there were 15 people there? Is that OK? What if there were 30 people, but only for 10 minutes? Why are we asking people to do any calculations at all? Just mandate the damned masks!
If she is going to take the heat for doing a mandate, just do a mandate! This is Reynolds being political, and nothing more. Except she isn’t even getting the politics correct. Critics on the right don’t want any mandate at all. So if she is going to be criticized either way, she might as well do a real mandate.
Reynolds knows that the Democratic candidate for Governor already has her/his first campaign plank – Reynolds should have done a mask mandate. Reynolds has seen polls. She knew she needed to be able to CLAIM to have done a mask mandate. So she did the weakest, most confusing thing possible. Now she will try to have it both ways. The problem is, the virus doesn’t care about your politics.
Reynolds says the mandate does not apply to workplaces. Can she explain? The 25 customers in the grocery store need masks, but the 8 employees do not? Do employees still need to observe 6’ for 15 minutes? Does the virus care?
Reynolds failed to address schools and churches. Again, the virus doesn’t care if you are Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Muslim, or just a non-believer. The restrictions need to apply, period.
The whole timing of the event demonstrates her cynicism. Why hold the announcement at 6:05 pm? I can tell you why; that means local newscasts have already started, and cannot cover it live. Nor can they fact check it live. Also, it was an “address” rather than a press conference. Why? Again, I can tell you why; she does not want to answer any questions.
Finally, she expects us to take her seriously when she spent the whole campaign season maskless while at huge rallies, maskless while hugging donors, and maskless while ridiculing Democratic Party candidates FOR wearing masks. Really? What happened between mid-October and mid-November that might have caused this change of heart? Oh, that’s right – the November 3 election!
People died because she waited until after the election. People died. She clearly put politics in front of the lives of Iowans.
So no, I cannot give any credit to Iowa’s Governor. I wish I could. I truly wish I could. Because she is again putting politics ahead of the health of Iowans. And it needs to stop.
*Congratulations Zach!
Congratulations to State Senator Zach Wahls of Coralville on being elected as the Democratic Leader of the Iowa Senate! This is a remarkable achievement at any age… but Senator Wahls is still only 29! This will be a challenging role for Zach; I plan to do everything I can to help him succeed! Congratulations again!
*More on Iowa Democrats
Last week’s Salvos got a good discussion going, so I wanted to talk some more about the issues facing Democrats in Iowa.
Let’s start by defining a group of Iowa Democrats that I will call, The “100 Most Important Dems”. You don’t need to like the name of the group, but bear with me. In this group are the 18 Democratic Senators, plus maybe 7-8 recent Senate retirees. It includes the 40+ Democratic House Members, plus maybe 10 recent retires. It includes any Democratic Member of Congress and recent retirees. It includes the State Auditor, State Treasurer, and Attorney General. It includes recent IDP Chairs. Throw in a handful of top Labor leaders, big money donors, and a smattering of others, and you have the “100 Most Important Dems.”
Please understand – I am not judging these folks. Most are really good people. A few are really good friends of mine! They reached this status through hard work. I am not disparaging these people. What I fail to understand, however, is how they seem to almost always arrive at the same conclusion when it comes to endorsements.
Look at the 2020 US Senate primary. Iowa had several really good candidates. How is it that Theresa Greenfield had been endorsed by 95+ of the “100 Most Important Dems” before anyone had ever asked her a question? How does that happen? No knock on Greenfield, but seriously... How does that happen? And how does it happen so early?
It has happened many times before. 99% or more of this group endorsed Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, despite the fact that the rest of the state split 50/50. I’m not making that number up – show me two people in the group who backed Bernie. I’ll wait.
An even higher percentage favored Bruce Braley in his 2014 Senate race; he didn’t even need to have a primary!
The same thing happened (though not to as great a degree) in the 2016 Senate primary, where the “100 Most Important Dems” chose Patty Judge over Rob Hogg. Ditto the 2018 Gubernatorial primary and Fred Hubbell.
Why is this? How does it happen? Do they have a big meeting? Is there an email chain? Do Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide? Do carrots and/or sticks come from someone in DC? Or, is it just Occam’s Razor, and the best-known person gets some endorsements and it snowballs from there?
Seriously, why is this group able to move forward in lock step when the rest of Iowa’s Democrats do much the opposite? It seems to happen too frequently to be random; perhaps someone can disabuse me of that idea.
Let’s assume for a moment that there are no conspiracies. This is just something that happens. Then the questions become how and why? Is it a good phenomenon, bad, or indifferent? To me, it is indicative of some type of herd mentality or groupthink. I can’t see much good coming from it. Again, I am happy to be proven wrong!
I think getting to the root of this issue would significantly assist Democrats in Iowa in moving forward. There is a disconnect between Party Leaders and the rest of the Party that should really be examined. Open and honest discussion of this phenomenon would be a great start.
*DID YOU KNOW? The annual tradition (which I detest) of a “Presidential Pardon" for a turkey began under President Reagan.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
These messages come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise mentioned.
If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan@mchsi.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.
As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan29@gmail.com. I look forward to serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 1:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home