Dear Friends,
(00:53) Trump’s most recent incredible, scary pronouncements;
(19:02) Republican hypocrisy on local control;
(37:54) The Democratic Party is in deep trouble;
(54:46) Cities need an office of urban ag, with Kathy Byrnes Fallon.
Why do politicians lie? Sure, not all of them, but a lot do. Especially among what’s called “leadership.” Especially among Republicans.
One blatant lie that has persisted for decades is that Republicans support local control. Even a casual glance at the track record makes it clear Republicans only support local control when it aligns with their big-business/Christian-nationalist agenda.
One of the many hazards of plastic bag litter.
From the Iowa Republican Party’s platform: “Our Constitution provides limits to governmental power, explicitly details our fundamental rights and insures (sic – should be ensures) that only the enumerated powers contained within the Constitution are executed by the federal government. All other functions of government are left to the state and local governments (bold face mine).”
Uh huh. Sure. That’s why, in the 1990s, when Iowa City required lawn care companies to inform neighboring properties in advance of a chemical application, Republicans rushed to defend the chemical industry by passing a bill taking away this right.
That’s why, also in the 1990s, when big national mobile home companies complained about cities requiring parks to build a storm shelter, Republicans passed a bill stopping them — immediately after a tornado killed eleven people in a mobile home park in Oklahoma City.
Maybe an Iowa county or city wants to ban plastic bags, as over 500 cities across the US have done? Too bad. In 2017, then-governor Branstad signed legislation outlawing it.
That same year, after four Iowa counties enacted living wage ordinances, Republican lawmakers came to the aid of big business and took away a city or county’s authority to do so.
Managing erosion from construction sites. Siting of hog confinements. Use of traffic cameras. Where fireworks can be sold. How libraries are funded. These are just a few of the many, many local government functions that Iowa Republican lawmakers have struck down or proposed to strike down.
And we haven’t even talked about education yet! Back to the Iowa Republican Party’s platform: “We support full local control in schools and therefore oppose any forced national education standard.”
While Republicans claim to be against the federal government meddling with public education, they apparently have no problem with state government eroding a school board’s authority through book bans, dictating social studies content, micromanaging Area Education Agencies, diverting tax dollars from public to private schools, and more.
That’s the content of this week’s second segment. Charles and I also discuss Donald Trump’s most recent crazy talk and why, despite that and Republican hypocrisy on local control, Iowa Democrats remain in deep, deep trouble.
As always, to wrap up the program on a positive, farm-and-food note, Kathy and I talk about why cities need an office of urban ag. In the future, we’ll do a deeper dive into how that’s working for the two cities that have established such offices.
Thanks for reading, listening, and doing your part for a better world.
Ed Fallon
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Ed Fallon