The economic mark of the Biden Administration can be found everywhere in Iowa. From electric vehicle charging stations and wastewater treatment facility upgrades, to grants for improved rural broadband connectivity, Biden worked with the Congress to deliver results for Iowans.

Despite these tangible contributions to improving the lives of Iowans, why doesn’t the president get more public credit for his work? I submit the reason is citizens just expect infrastructure things to happen. It is government acting as it should be and therefore if nothing seems broken, no worries. No credit for elected officials either.

At the same time infrastructure improvement happens, there is a coterie of Congress-people sowing chaos in the U.S. Capitol in an obvious, although ill-advised, attempt to re-elect indicted criminal Donald J. Trump as President. I don’t know if Matt Gaetz is the ring leader, yet he is at the center of efforts to disrupt our government and economy at the bidding of the 45th president. Gaetz was recently profiled in The New Yorker.

In seven years in Congress, Gaetz has helped make the institution even more dysfunctional than it already was, threatening to shut down the federal government and force a default on its debt. Gaetz is a paradox: he is determined to attack the modern democratic state, but he harbors ambitions that only modern American politics can satisfy. He articulates an idea of the country that seems so negative—ridiculing his colleagues, trashing the welfare state, scorning embattled democracies abroad—that it is sometimes difficult to see what he stands for. And yet the more Gaetz tears down, the more his supporters love him.

Matt Goetz’s Chaos Agenda, The New Yorker, Feb. 19, 2024.

I recommend reading the entire article at the link.

I have confidence in the American people and in Iowans. The Iowa Democratic Party is on the right path with its People before Politics campaign. As an Iowan, everywhere I turn in state government there are problems with its current direction.

For example, I currently need a certified copy of a birth certificate for the new Real ID program, which adds a gold star to my driver’s license. I don’t like flying in commercial aircraft, yet may have to in event of an emergency. Real ID or additional documents will soon be required. The needed certified government document was available at the county recorder’s office in western Iowa, yet when I called to ask questions, they referred me to an outfit called VitalChek to get it. “You can order it from us by mail and you can also just call them and they will send it to you,” the person answering the phone said. That’s fine if the outsourcing of normal government functions saves money for the state. What VitalChek does is add a substantial fee to the request, in addition to the charge for the document. Perhaps some government staffing was reduced in this move, but the expense was transferred directly to citizens in the form of extra fees. Pile on enough stuff like this, and the people of Iowa may get irritated enough to vote Republicans out of office. Maybe then Iowans will recognize the good work Democrats can and in Biden’s case are doing.

To leave on a positive note, I linked to this video about broadband in Iowa. Whatever you do in the near future, be sure to give the Biden Administration credit for the good work they are doing.