Author Archives: Ed Fallon

Biden must honor his commitment to shut down DAPL

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The Obama administration — including then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of State John Kerry — sent the message that new oil pipelines are dragging the US and our planet in the wrong direction. The clear, consistent, and scientific next step for President-elect Biden’s administration is to again cancel both pipelines, once and for all. Given Biden’s strong statements in opposition to DAPL while in Iowa in 2019, cancelation of the pipeline is his only consistent choice. Continue Reading →

How bad is the COVID surge going to get?

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I received this disturbing and heart-wrenching message from a worker at an Iowa healthcare facility: “We are fighting a battle that we just can’t win here. No matter what we do, no matter how careful we are, I know without a shadow of a doubt that all our people WILL GET this thing. It has taken on a life of its own. A third of our people have COVID and half of our staff has it. We are drowning!!!!!!!” Continue Reading →

52 Conversations With Iowa Trump Voters

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In 2021, a key collaboration between the Fallon Forum and Bold Iowa will be “Fifty-two Conversations With Trump Voters.” Each week, I’ll have an hour-long conversation with someone who voted for Donald Trump. I’ll publish a summary of that conversation in my weekly blog and also interview that voter during my talk show.

This will, no doubt, anger some of you. “Ed, how dare you give any more coverage to those people!”

A key element of our way out of the current divide is through dialogue. I reject the rhetoric that most Trump voters are racists, misogynists, and “deplorable” — as Hillary Clinton so memorably referred to half of Trump’s supporters in 2016. Continue Reading →

Damn the Trumpedoes, we’re planting artichokes

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Last month, I wrote that for Trump to win, he would have to pull it off in the courts. I thought then that a good old-fashion military coup wouldn’t work because so many high-ranking officials were anti-Trump. Yet with Trump tightening his grip on the various tentacles of national defense, appointing solid Trump loyalists to key positions, a military coup may be his backup plan if the judicial coup fails. Continue Reading →

Meet the next next president of the United States

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If Joe Biden wins next week — and really, even if he doesn’t — the smart money says his running mate, Kamala Harris, has the inside track on being the Democratic Party’s next nominee, and quite possibly the next next president. While Harris wasn’t my first, second, or even third choice in the Iowa Caucuses, I’m cautiously comfortable considering her as president. Continue Reading →

Is the risk of fascism overblown?

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The good Goldmans and I dig into the history of fascism and discuss whether concerns about America going full-out fascist are overblown, election-year, scare-the-voter hype. The short answer is no, such concerns are not overblown. The risk is real, and the parallels to 1930s Germany are too striking to ignore. The bottom line is this: Vote as if your life and our democracy depend on it! Continue Reading →

I won’t do what Biden told me to do

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You might recall that, in a video captured by Kathy Byrnes at a campaign rally last January, Joe Biden told me, “Go vote for someone else.” Well, I’m not going to do that. I’m voting for Joe Biden because, even though climate leaders may disagree with Biden on specifics, we can work with him. The best I can hope from climate denier Donald Trump is to get thrown out of his rallies. Continue Reading →