Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
[Commentary] Unlike President Bush’s failed policies in Iraq, the terrorists successfully accomplished their mission on Sept. 11, 2001. If their objective was to use violence against civilians with the intention of further intimidating and coercing societies by instilling fear, then the terrorists have long surpassed fulfilling their benchmark.
Nearly six years later, the U.S. government has been bogged down in an asymmetrical war with no end in sight, which has helped cripple our attention to domestic needs and severed our reputation and credibility in the global community. All of this has been accomplished without a single terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11. There’s no need to attack us. We’ve become our own worst enemies by succumbing to the fear looming over our collective psyche. And it’s this fear that has seeped into GOP presidential politics, leaving its footprints on the campaign trail all across Iowa.After 9/11, when people asked me if I feared the terrorists, my patent response was, “No, I’m afraid of man-eating sharks.” The typical response to this was, “But that doesn’t make any sense. What are the odds of getting attacked by a shark in a landlocked state?” To which I answered, “About the same as getting attacked by a terrorist.” Besides, when it comes to fear, I’ve adopted the philosophy that you can choose to live in fear, or you can choose to live. I prefer option B, which reminds me of the last lines from a Robert Frost poem, “Road Not Taken”:
When politicians insert “Everything has changed since 9/11″ into their rhetoric, they might be right — but only if the American people buy into this notion. Sure, the attacks on 9/11 bred a new politics-of-fear era, but it’s contingent upon peoples’ willing subjugation to the fear that feeds the political rhetoric, which feeds the fear, and there you have it – a perpetual cycle of fear.
Instead of continuing to stand together after 9/11, the American people have become severely polarized as political strategists ink our red and blue states. The Bush administration had a unique opportunity to unify Americans, but opted to use the rhetoric of fear by creating an “us vs. them” mentality reminiscent of the early stages of the Cold War in the 1950s. In doing so, Bush played right into the terrorists’ hands by assuming the role of puppet as he pumped fear into the American psyche, thus perpetuating the cycle of fear. This merely empowered the terrorists as they succeeded, with the help of their fear puppeteer, to break down America’s illusion of security and pit Americans against each other, rather than unify them.
In the 2004 presidential election, the GOP succeeded, in part because they were able to capitalize on the fear factor, branding it into their messaging. Fear not only paralyzed the Democratic Party, but it also helped divide it as members questioned their identity and succumbed to a new byproduct of fear: electability. The Democrats’ fear of losing yet another election paved the way to the “Anybody but Bush” mentality, in lieu of who is the candidate that best exemplifies the values of the Democratic Party.
In 2006, with America’s growing dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq, the tide of fear began shifting as Americans began fearing the prospect of fighting a war with no end. Voters sought hope and invested themselves in the Democratic Party, which managed to capitalize on this shift, winning control of Congress. With just more than six months under their belts, the Democrats in control of Congress are facing more pressure from constituents to paint a more optimistic picture. But their efforts have been relatively ineffective.
Some of the GOP presidential candidates are using this lack of progress to stoke people’s fears and court the conservative right in Iowa while simultaneously appealing to their base. Much like the Democrats in 2004, Republicans in Iowa have found themselves at a crossroad as they search for a candidate who represents the best of both worlds: electable and appeals to the core values of the party. Again, the electability factor has surfaced, only this time it’s in the Republican Party. While none of the top-tiered candidates has overwhelmed GOP voters, none of the bottom-tiered has crossed the electability threshold for Republicans.
This Saturday’s GOP Straw Poll in Ames provides the bottom-tiered candidates an opportunity to penetrate the top tier and inject their candidacy with a shot of credibility. Although former New York Gov. Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona have opted to skip the fund-raiser, the rest of the candidates will be stumping for votes in Ames. Each candidate is given stage time to deliver a speech to the participants. The question is whether or not they’ll use the rhetoric of fear or hope as they attempt to persuade and motivate participants to cast a vote for them.
Given the current tone of fear espoused in the political arena, I can only hope that voters will take the road less traveled and that this choice will make all the difference.
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