Maybe we shouldn't wait for politicians to fix it
There's much that needs to improve
The loudest voices don’t seem to represent the most voices. But that’s what gets the clicks online or on social media. And that’s what gets someone booked on a partisan cable TV show. Has our political system every been more broken than it is today? Has it ever so often felt disconnected to so much of our lives? There is so much ugliness, so much tribalism and so many unfulfilled promises.
Democrats campaigned on raising the minimum wage, making the tax system fairer and changing gun laws. That was 2020. They didn’t do any of that in 2021 when they controlled the White House and Congress. Why didn’t they?
Republicans promised fiscal discipline, a replacement for Obamacare and a border wall across the southern border in 2016. Nope, nope and kind of were the results for those three pledges. Why? Campaign promises don’t matter is accountability does not follow them.
But it’s not just those six failures that demonstrate the fecklessness of our modern day politics. To be fair: elected officials do things and some of those things, they believe, will help people’s lives. I have met many well-intentioned people. In fact, many of those I see at the Iowa Statehouse have good intentions.
But what about the really big challenges facing our country? I wrote a few weeks ago about the national debt. I know it’s not a sexy topic that will headline cable TV’s primetime lineup night after night.
By my math, federal elected officials spend about $1.30 for every $1 in revenue. We’re already $34 trillion in debt and climbing fast. It’s hard to imagine a balanced budget any time soon.
I’m no economist. But it seems to me that not only do our elected officials need to balance the budget but they also need to start amassing surpluses to pay toward the debt in a meaningful way. So for every $1 in revenue, they could spend 90 cents and then commit that “leftover” 10 cents toward paying down the debt. Could that be a solution?
My brain hurts too much right now to try to figure out how long at that rate it would take to pay off the debt. I’m sure it’s many years. But at least we would be making progress.
I don’t want to keep highlighting this week after week here (although, doesn’t it deserve our constant attention?) because we also have many other challenging matters that also merit long-term solutions.
Why do we have so many people hooked on prescription pills?
Why can’t Congress pass immigration reform for those wanting to come into this country and for those who are already living here without legal status?
Why do veterans still not get the care they need after their service end?
Why are so many people homeless?
Why don’t we have true equality?
Why don’t we do more to make our communities more sustainable for the environment?
Why do many in this country get shot?
Why can’t we make our health care system more affordable for people?
Why can’t our students be the best educated in the world?
Why do we not provide everyone with the mental health services that they need?
Why don’t we put more focus on building up our smaller communities.
This isn’t an exhaustive list. Obviously. There should be many more. By tomorrow morning, I will probably think of at least a half dozen more. I bet you have thought of several that aren’t on the list that you care about.
I’m not saying that politicians don’t care about these things. But damn. So much of today’s politics doesn’t seem to focus on improving vexing problems like these. It’s quick fix issues. It’s bumper sticker sound bites. It’s demonizing the other side.
But as I end this week…and it’s been a long, tiring one…I want to focus on two highlights. One was a lunch and one was a coffee. They were both private conversations, so I won’t betray their friendship by using their names.
One woman is a business owner who is determined to make sure that people with substance abuse problems not only get clean but also thrive in their new, heathier lives. She helps a non-profit do just that. She was my lunch conversation. She is a trusted confidant and so dedicated to working for causes that better people’s lives.
The other conversation was my coffee chat. Although, to be accurate I must admit that I had to delay our morning meetup until mid-afternoon because of work demands. And I can’t drink coffee late in the afternoon if I plan to sleep that night. Sorry, information that I’m sure you could live without. But it seems weird to call this a “coffee” when I didn’t have one.
Anyhow…we chatted for three hours. It was inspiring, much like my lunch conversation earlier in the week. In this second gathering, a woman who has dedicated several decades of community service through non-profit work is now planning a post-retirement mission to help lend an experienced ear and offer advice to other non-profit leaders as they navigate their own journey.
Neither of these women are politicians. Neither wants to be a politician. But they are both determined to help solve some of the problems that politicians have yet to solve.
It feels good for my mind, my soul and my purpose when I can spend time with people like these. I need to do it more often. I realized this week that I likely have much more time behind me than in front of me. Time to make the best use of it.
Time to celebrate and share the efforts of the two women I met with this week. Maybe the media writ large need to focus more on people like these two. Let’s focus on people trying to truly make a difference and showing us how we can join them, instead of listening to politicians who are planning for their next election.
I don’t say this nearly enough. But I sincerely thank all of you for reading these columns, messaging me your thoughts, subscribing to help us grow and sharing so others can join us. It’s very humbling. And it means a great deal to me. Thank you.
What else…
On my new weekly show for Iowa’s Gray TV stations, Inside Iowa Politics, I talked to a former teacher-turned legislator-turned education leader-turned legislator again on his involvement in one of the most talked about issues during this Iowa legislative session. Watch that here and find out what he resolves to do as he navigates one of the governor’s biggest priorities of the year.
I learned a lot talking Monte Shaw, the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. There was a billboard he saw as a boy each day from his school bus window that helps guide him in his work today. Watch that interview for American Farmland Owner here.
Dave - I certainly get the sentiment - I'm not sure if today's politicians can fix it. I think people that want to fix it, if elected to office and given a decade, could. Big IFs.
A couple of quick responses, though. Deficits. Yes, national deficit is a concern. Back to that in a minute. The state of Iowa, however, has a huge surplus. We also have a ton of issues - increasing cancer rates, school funding not keeping up with inflation, water quality, hungry kids, housing costs, elder care - and I'm just getting started. So why are our state decision-makers not using those surplus dollars to solve problems? I think *that* should be the question you are asking. Perhaps it can be the next question you ask?
Then - on renewable fuels. Hugely important for the organization you now work for. But with your journalistic integrity - how do you not push back when someone suggests a 50% increase in crop production who is concerned with not having a market for those crops? How do you not ask: "Is there a time when maybe we should be farming fewer of those marginal acres and putting buffer strips along our waterways in order to improve water quality?" or "Maybe we could stop farming the acres that are right up against our little league diamonds and our city parks, so that chemicals used in agriculture are a little less likely to cause cancer in our kids?" Or even pick up on the implications of the stat that your guest provided: during the 80's Iowa lost 1 out of 4 farms. I mean, we didn't really lose the land that was farmed - other than the topsoil that's now working its way to the gulf. What we lost is 1 out of the 4 families living in rural areas contributing to rural economies. And we have continued to lose that in the decades since. The average farm operator in Iowa - very rough stats here, but on par with reality - went from 400 acres 2 generations ago to 4000 acres today. That means we need 1/10th as many farm operators as we did. And everything points to this trend continuing. I try to withhold judgment on that trend - technological improvements in genetics and equipment are driving it, and that is what it is... but it's happening because of policies, and we can change those if we want to work together to do so.
I said I'd come back to national deficits. I'm going to skip that for now - would be happy to meet for coffee to discuss if you find this at all interesting. What I would like to close with is asking you: if not politicians, then who? Certainly we can all work toward more civil discourse. A better understanding of the changes that are going on around us. Meeting the needs through good deeds of those folks around us. And yet at some point - our state and our nation need leadership that provides a compelling vision for all of us to rally around, be inspired by, and work toward.
And if that isn't the role of government, then who?
I get frustrated as much as you do, and it seems nothing works from either side. I could go onand on about that, but like you, I am more interested in what people do outside of politics to solve very real problems on their own. My solution to problems is to find those who are doing something that matters and help out as best I can. Usually that means money, and as a retiree that has suffucent money to live on, extra money isn't always available. So, I started picking up cans and bottles for the drposits, it clears away a lot of trash that turns into sizable amounts of money over time. I started clearing the cans and bottles from a dumpster at a canoe take out spot, and cleared $750 in three months. That was three years ago and each year the amount goes higher with other quick spots I clear up like disc golf courses. In three years I have reclaimed over 2,200 dolars that goes to help out people who are really doing something to make things better. I offered to pay the rent on a spot for Latino medical check ups for a couple of months while they get set up for instance. I donated 50 bucks to Andy McKean's election campaign, I kicked in a couple hundred for the fourth of July parade in my home town, I donated a grand to the food bank, $500 to the two gals who were putting up and taking down the funeral flags at the cemetery on Memorial Day (over 600 flags I'm told). While I'm clearing cans out of the dumpster I also rescue the water from water bottles and water my garden, I save all the food scraps, potato chips, pretzels, sandwiches, bread, etc, for my brother-in-laws chickens. Some good weeks I have hauled as many as 7 bags of 350 cans out in a single week from that one dumpster. Yes it is work, but time I have and money I am making to fuel other projects or provide grant seed money and my prospective changes simply because I'm doing something to make things better! Right now I'm sitting on $735 in the kitty with the intention of helping out someone in a pinch for cash and a idea that needs financing!