Iowa Progressives Discuss 2012

by Paul Deaton

As the 84th Iowa General Assembly gets off to a slow start, some Progressives discussed prospects for the 2012 election over coffee last week. There is hope that the partisan votes in the Iowa House, combined with public debate on social issues and whether the state's projected $900 million revenue surplus is an indicator of good or bad fiscal policy, will reverse the 2010 midterms and bring a wave of Democratic lawmakers into office during the 2012 presidential election.

There is plenty of evidence that Republican lawmakers are putting pressure on the values of most Iowans in the areas of education, civil rights, spending, job creation and tax benefits for the largest corporations. There is a case to be made that 2012 should be a good year for Democrats. That case is that the Republican agenda is so extreme that people will see through it and realize that they should activate to elect lawmakers more aligned with our values. It seems doubtful that such a case will be persuasive.

The trouble for progressives is that the Republicans are setting the agenda, controlling media messaging and sucking up all of the oxygen. For example, on Monday there is a public hearing in the House chamber on House Joint Resolution 6, “proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Iowa specifying marriage between one man and one woman as the only legal union that is valid or recognized in the state.” As the advocacy group One Iowa points out, HJR 6 “would not only overturn the Varnum decision, but would slam the door on
civil unions, domestic partnerships, and any other legal recognition of
same-sex couples.“ BFIA readers are encouraged to attend the public hearing, or write your elected officials on HJR 6.

At the same time, as Blog for Iowa has pointed out, introducing such a resolution has become an annual ritual for Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal has indicated that this issue will not advance on his watch. Progressives either support Senator Gronstal or they don't. The Senate Democratic majority is our firewall this session, and regardless of what is discussed during the public hearing on HJR 6, the House Republicans have the votes to advance the resolution and are expected to do so. Our energies may better be spent shoring up support in the Senate.

So why do progressives enable the conservatives to occupy our time and resources with this wedge issue? Don't look for a complete answer here because like most progressives, we feel stopping HJR 6 is a priority and worth the investment of time. To the extent we enable the Republicans, it seems unlikely we will be able to make our case to Iowans that they should be replaced in 2012. Stopping
HJR 6 and other Republican retrenchment is consistent with what most
Iowans want. The trouble will be in engaging enough Iowans to take
notice, something we did not do as well as we needed in 2010 when we saw Branstad and the Republican express coming.

For progressives to re-take the house majority and preserve our strength in the Senate, the work should begin now, amidst the noise of the hopeful Republicans, and it will have to begin without the paid staff that helped with the last election cycle. The road to a 2012 progressive victory will be difficult, but over coffee, we felt we were up to the task.

~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton