SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
December 17, 2020
Sullivan’s Salvos 12/22/20
In this edition:
*RIP Bill Laubengayer
*RIP Marvin Bell
*Merry Christmas!
*Salvos Salutes Next Week!
*Does Policy Matter?
*Endless War
*Did You Know?
*RIP Bill Laubengayer
I was sorry to hear of the passing of Bill Laubengayer of Coralville. Bill was a great community volunteer, serving on all sorts of boards, commissions, and committees. He was a good citizen and a good guy, and he will be missed.
*RIP Marvin Bell
The great Iowa poet Marvin Bell passed away recently. I have his poem, “Writers in a Café” hung in my office. The last line? “The guns fail when surrounded by writing.” Keep that in mind as you read the last article in this edition of Salvos. RIP, Marvin.
*Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!
*Salvos Salutes Next Week!
We live in a GREAT county! Why? Because of the great people that live here! Unfortunately, we rarely do enough to acknowledge these wonderful people and the wonderful things they do.
That is why I really look forward to Salvos Salutes. It provides an opportunity to mention just a few of these cool people and the good things they do. I hope you look forward to it as well!
*Does Policy Matter?
There have been a number of articles written post-election about the polarization between the two parties. Many of these articles ask, “Does policy matter to Republicans, or is it only about Party?” Others ask, “Does policy matter to Democrats, or is it only about Party?” Both parties are asking the same question.
Unfortunately, I think the answer is that policy matters very little. I would say that it matters more for Ds than Rs, but caring about policy has slipped in both camps. I would estimate that on a federal level, policy is 10% of the vote; 90% is tribal. And though many do not realize it, similar things are happening on the local level.
The first time I ever saw this was the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) vote in May of 2009. Rural voters defeated the LOST by a 2:1 margin. The thing is, all the LOST was going to do in the rural areas was offset property taxes. It was a gift. Taxes wouldn’t increase; they would simply shift to people with less property. In other words, shifting taxes away from farmers.
What’s more, imagine the scenario where everyone else BUT the rural voters passed it. Now rural voters still have to pay the tax, but get none of the tax relief. There was truly almost no way to take a vote that was more in opposition to their own self interests.
But rural interests were so certain that this was a plot by “city folks” that they overwhelmingly voted it down. I watched a few area farmers shake their heads as they attempted (unsuccessfully) to explain to other rural residents why this was a good thing. The bottom line was that few people cared about the math. They cared about the tribe.
It ended up failing in the metro area, of course, so rural interests did not end up paying more. And I was perfectly fine with the LOST failing, as I believe it is immoral to replace property taxes with sales taxes. But I have always been a minority voice when it comes to that opinion; traditionally most Democrats are willing to dump a little more misery on the poor to buy themselves a shiny new toy. The exception is usually Democrats with backgrounds in organized labor.
Anyway, the LOST scenario illustrates how voters decided to vote against their own self interests simply because the alternative would mean agreeing with most of the urban Democrats.
Some very similar things happened recently with Johnson County’s update of our Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). There were a few changes that were big concerns for most farmers. But many of the changes were things farmers had been requesting for decades. A few more changes were mutually acceptable, but we had to massage the language.
So what happened?
1. About a quarter of the Ag community read the proposed changes, agreed it was mostly good, but had a few concerns. They asked us to tweak a few things.
2. About a quarter of the Ag community refused to trust us. They heard a bunch of lies, and were not completely sure what to believe. They never came around completely, and only came around on a few issues. And that only happened because the first quartile urged them to get on board.
3. Another quarter of the Ag community heard a bunch of falsehoods, and never let them go. One example – “They want to end animal husbandry.” No matter how many times we said otherwise, this quartile clung to the misinformation.
4. The final quarter wouldn’t even look us in the eye. They simply decided they hated us, and refused to hear a single word we had to say.
So yes, even locally, policy doesn’t really matter. On a couple of UDO issues, the Board had 3-2 votes. To the extent that the issues could be broken down this way, Pat Heiden and I agreed with the farm argument; Lisa Green Douglass and Janelle Rettig did not. Royceann Porter was the deciding vote both times. Both times she sided with the farmers.
Flash forward to the 2020 elections. I trailed Lisa in just about every rural precinct; Royceann trailed us both by a noticeable margin. It certainly did not seem that rural voters looked at policies when they cast those votes. Otherwise, they would have all voted for Royceann.
I think it is sad that politics have gotten this stark. It is sad to see the impact of false information at all levels of government. I promise to do my part to make things better; we’ll see where this goes.
*Endless War
I am no fan of Donald Trump. As a matter of fact, my guess is that if there is, in fact, a Hell – our 45th President will end up there. I think he is about as evil as they come. So yeah, I do not think highly of him.
That is why it is so frustrating to admit that there is at least one issue where he is right, and most Republicans and Democrats are wrong. That issue is endless war.
The two longest wars in US history are Afghanistan and Iraq. Can anyone explain to me why the US is still in either country? The BEST answer I can get from anyone is that things will get even worse if we leave. That may be true. But it is not a very compelling reason. It is time to leave the responsibility for Afghanistan and Iraq to the people of those countries. It is time for a complete withdrawal.
The same can be said for Yemen, Somalia, Syria, and every other place US troops are fighting. Congress has not declared a war in any of these places. What the hell are we doing?
There are 450,000 US troops in 150 countries around the world. The planet has less than 200 countries total! Again, I ask: what the hell are we doing?
I do not pretend that his motives are pure. But the bottom line is Donald Trump is correct about putting an end to our wars. I think this illustrates a bit of Trump’s attractiveness to some voters. He is clearly willing to speak a truth that 95% of all Republicans and 95% of all Democrats refuse to acknowledge. In these polarized times it figures that the one place Democrats and Republicans agree, they are both wrong!
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. In this case, politicians need to wake up and recognize that Trump got this one right. Let’s put an end to all our many wars.
*DID YOU KNOW? The U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost American taxpayers $6.4 trillion since they began in 2001. That total is $2 trillion more than all federal government spending during the recently completed fiscal year. The report, from Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, also finds that more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 1:53 PM
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