Category: Politics

On Standing Up for Iowa City

In the midst of terrible legislation at the state and federal level, how candidates running for Iowa City Council’s March 4 special election want to react to protect vulnerable people is an issue. Both addressed it in recent interviews.

Oliver Weilein in an interview with KRUI (audio is available on YouTube):

Amman Hassan: […] Also, about the not collaborating with fascism, and the Iowa City autonomy, obviously we are kind of a blue dot in a sea of red. How much autonomy or wiggle room does Iowa City have to kind of ignore some of these resettlement orders or some of these acts against minority groups, immigrants in particular? How much wiggle room do we have to ignore those orders and address the issues as we see fit, or protect these groups as we see fit?

Oliver: […] When it comes to what kind of autonomy or agency Iowa City has in the state, it is true that we live in a hostile state run by people who are cruel and do not have the best interest of the people in mind. They want to protect the wealthiest people in our state, and they want to keep oppressed people in their place. We need to not go into this thinking that these are people that can be reasoned with, like Kim Reynolds, that we need to try so hard to placate them and to beg, because no matter what we do it will never be enough for them. They will always keep coming after our people. They will always keep cutting our budget. They will always keep lowering property taxes. They will always keep doing all of these things that are detrimental to our community, and I think it is delusional to expect any different, no matter how much we give them. Going into it with the attitude that we need to come up with another way. 

I think that if we really put our mind to these things and make them a priority, we can really do something. I look at examples like in 2020, when our mayor Bruce Teague and the city wanted to implement a mask mandate, and Kim Reynolds was like, “No, I’m writing it in law that cities cannot do a mask mandate.” We were able to get around that with just clever wording, something about mandating masks for persons and not facilities. Something like that. We can always put our minds to something and there are so many smart people, and so many organizations of smart people who know the law, who it’s their mission to do these types of things. The city councilors and the mayor at the time, they did a great job with that. I think if we apply that same determination, and willingness, and priority to protecting migrants and protecting trans people, and protecting our LGBT community, and our low income people, I think there’s always something that we can do. 

Like I said, that doesn’t mean that we do something reckless or not strategic or not smart. A lot of people have criticized me saying oh, he’s just gonna like… No, I’ve never said that. What does differentiate me from my opponent is that I am willing to say that I do not support ICE, and I will do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, to protect the immigrant community. At the end of the day, if everything has been, if all the things have been tried, if there is absolutely nothing else we can do as a city, I’m not willing to sell one person for a dollar amount. That seems to be what a lot of people who were criticizing me were saying, “Well at the end of the day, we are just going to have to sell out some of our neighbors to fascism.” I think going into this new administration with that attitude is crazy. It is what has gotten us into this position in the first place.

Ross Nusser in a separate interview on KRUI (audio is available on YouTube):

Glab: What are your thoughts and feelings on the recent Iowa legislator bills that have been passed through subcommittees that strip civil rights away from trans people?

Ross: Yeah, it’s so disappointing for Iowa. I mean, Iowa, we used to be a leader in civil rights, and now we’re a leader in the backwards movements of civil rights. It’s abhorrent, it’s awful, and we have to, as a community, figure out ways to fight smart.

Glab: Also, do you see trans people as part of your constituents to vote for you, or where do you see them as?

Ross: Absolutely. 100% unequivocally, absolutely.

Glab: What have been some of like the things that they’ve expressed to you as you were campaigning in terms of like their wants and needs.

Ross: I’ve heard a lot of personal stories, and the personal stories, just again, bringing it back to recovery, that’s how we relate our journey. So, I’ve heard many personal stories that have intimately related their journey. I’m not at liberty to share those stories on the air. It wouldn’t be respectful for me, but I can tell you that I have a deep sense of empathy. They are so very much a vital part of our community, and I fully intend on protecting them as much as I can.

Glab: With these bills kind of seem more likely than not to go through, what are you going to do if you were elected to City Council to protect the trans members in our community?

Ross: We’re gonna look at them, we’re gonna analyze them, them being the bills, and we’re gonna fight smart. Like I said, we are going to be resourceful, we are going to be thoughtful, we are gonna look into the future, we are gonna look at possible implications, any sort of action that could happen that would either go against us or for us, and we will make the best possible decision at the time. We will make sure that we are fighting for the needs of our most marginalized communities.

Glab: I know you’re not on City Council yet and probably haven’t fully fleshed out ways to do that, but do you have any ideas of how you would do that, I guess looking from an outside-in perspective at the moment.

Ross: Yeah, I’ve not been on City Council as you put, but I have been on leadership roles, and I have had to be in places where tough decisions are needed to be talked about and consensus is needed to be gained. So, this position is one of seven council members. This is just this is something where I will collaborate with my council members. We will figure out how to best address it at the time. I think that it’s hard to do anything and hard to make commitments to anything. Also, part of it is giving away the playbook, right? Like we want to fight smart. We want to be people who can actually protect, actually make a difference.

Amman: Do you have any ideas of what you would do in the present for when these bills pass and what you would do in the future?

Ross: So these bills have not passed, I’m not on council, and so I’m not sure.

Glab: Do you have Ideas of what you would do though?

Ross: Collaborate

Amman: Could you elaborate.

Ross: Collaborate with my fellow counselors.

Will: In addressing these questions, you’ve used the term fight smart a lot. Could you define that a little bit more?

Ross: Yeah, fighting smart, not taking it as anything other than what it is, seeing what’s coming at us, reacting in a way that’s responsible, evaluating what exactly is coming at us, and then figuring out what exactly our solutions can be. What are our options here? There are some things that we can do, there are some things that we can’t do. There are some things that we can do that draw more attention to us, there are some things that we can’t do that also draw more attention to us. So, fighting smart means fighting smart, it means looking, it means thinking before acting.

I voted for Oliver Weilein, and encourage all Iowa voters to do the same on or before March 4.

Iowa Repeals Civil Rights Protections for Gender Identity

Robin Opsahl for the Iowa Capitol Dispatch:

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a measure Friday to remove protections from discrimination on the basis of gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

The new law makes Iowa the first state in the nation to remove civil rights protections from a group of individuals designated with a protected status in state code.

That bears repeating: “The new law makes Iowa the first state in the nation to remove civil rights protections from a group of individuals designated with a protected status in state code.”

The legislators who voted for this know it’s not about protecting women and girls. They know it’s not about only enshrining immutable characteristics. They know it’s not to allow common-sense solutions or align with civil rights protections at the federal level.

We all know it’s because cruelty remains the point.

Our Rights We Will Maintain

Tomorrow, the state legislature will begin consideration of a bill to eliminate rights of transgender Iowa in explicit contravention of Iowa’s own motto contained in Iowa code, Chapter 1A:

Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.

The bill, HAB242, pulls together practically every piece of anti-trans effort of the recent past and would make Iowa the first state to remove rights from a protected class:

Among its components are a full-scale removal of transgender Iowans’ civil rights protections, restroom restrictions, birth certificate restrictions, a legal redefinition of sex that erases trans people from existence, and more.

Let this radicalize you.

Why I’m Voting for Oliver Weilein and You Should, Too

I didn’t meet Oliver Weilein until recently, sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, when he was considering a run for the March 4 Iowa City Council District C special election.

While that was the first time we talked, I’d known of him for a while, primarily from his presence online where he is entertainingly irreverent, particularly on topics related to local politics. While it explains the distain his candidacy is receiving from local political types, it’s the punching up you should expect from a working-class guy who plays in punk bands.

I found Oliver to be refreshingly humble, loving and thoughtful. He turned out to be a person with strong values about how people in our community should care for each other and he was living values.

No wonder so many people who know Oliver Weilein love him and trust him.

Those are the same folks most at risk in the coming weeks, months and years: trans folks, immigrants, the homeless and working-class people.

Oliver believes we should care for each other, and he is ready to protect our community and its vulnerable members. Not recklessly, but creatively, because “we can’t” and “let’s lay low” and “I don’t know” are unacceptable in this moment in history, when our community and our most vulnerable community members are in the crosshairs of Des Moines and DC.

I’m excited to vote for Oliver Weilein in the March 4 special election, but I’m even more excited for him to serve on the Iowa City Council.

On Lying Low

Last week, the United States swore in a convicted felon to the Oval Office. I’ve halted a lot of news intake since November and am still aware of some unpresidented actions, nominations and proposals, of which no-one should be surprised.

Still, some leaders at all levels want to wait and see what happens and exercising their lawful powers, afraid it will put a target on their own back.

Fuck that.

If you’re a leader who thinks now — right now, facing this present and future threat — is the time to clutch pearls and do things as we’ve always done them, you’ve got your head up your ass.

History is counting on folks standing up. People right now are counting on folks standing up.

“A Country Teetering on the Edge of Collapse is Filled with Patriots.”

I’ve long been a pragmatic institutionalist — I am, after all, a public employee — willing to work within systems even knowing they are flawed, imperfect vessels for my values and ideals.

Failing to learn the lesson of my parents’ generation, I’ve considered myself a capital-d Democrat, and given my time and money to that cause, feeling the party was, at best, advancing things I care about or, at worst, practical harm reduction to staunch the punch-down politics of the MAGA-era Republican Party.

There are no moral victories in politics; you either wield power or you don’t. And while today begins an era of total, unified control in Washington, DC, and Des Moines, the Democratic Party seemingly hasn’t realized a need to change. Iowa Democrats have but a single defanged statewide elected and are virtually powerless in the both houses of the legislature. They have watched themselves lose ground cycle after cycle, yet still simply aspire to “make Iowa purple again.” This reads to me as a declaration of capitulation, a willingness to appease people who continue to come after us and our vulnerable neighbors — immigrants, the unhoused, transgender folks and anyone else they please — and a readiness to sell out the values and voters of Johnson County to appeal to conservative rural and suburban voters.

In Iowa and elsewhere, many Democrats are from districts where “Democrat” is a tarnished brand for college-educated elites who want to tax and regulate and tell you how to talk and take away your truck and your guns. There is something to be said for the practicality of running away from the broader Democratic brand and instead focusing on common-ground issues. 

But closer to home is where political leadership increasingly matters. And here in Iowa City and Johnson County we elect Democrats. We send them to be grist in the GOP-supermajority legislature and to run our county (the Republican Party doesn’t even bother to run candidates) and our non-partisan city councils. And despite having nothing to lose but their own political aspirations, our elected leaders too often speak and govern from fear and either abandon their values or don’t share mine to begin with.

The list of disappointments is long, but I was recently brought the clarity I needed to change my voter registration, this morning of all mornings, by the public castigation of a candidate for Iowa City’s city council and his supporters for not unconditionally loving the United States of America. For putting his love of people over politics. 

Instead of pulling together to protect the vulnerable in our community, we have repeatedly seen local Democrats be selfish, petty, rude, dismissive, derisive, bullies and purposefully obtuse, putting politics over people and unable to get out of their own collective way to make this a better, safer place for the people who live here.

There is place for compromise, but there is not a place to compromise our values.

Two Feet In

Being a leader is hard. It requires commitment. And selflessness. And doing more work than you probably think.

We deserve leaders who stand, two feet in.

Not people who don’t show up, or who frame their cowardice as a stance. And certainly not people on their heels headed towards the exit or with a foot already out the door.

About Tonight

I am feeling, like I suspect many of you, on edge.

I still carry the trauma of Election Day 2016 and the years that followed. No matter what happens, I won’t fully exhale until — at best — sometime in January.

Even after, regardless, we will need each other. We will need community and care. We will need love and kindness.

It will be easy to slip into pettiness and anger and rage and fear. I hope you can surround yourself with people you love and who love you. I hope we can all find generosity and gratitude.

And I hope we can dig deep to do the hard work ahead.

The work we do on the ground in our neighborhoods and in our community will always matter, even and especially when it’s hard. No matter what. Because it will matter.

The sun always sets. And it always rises. And for some folks the world will always be unfair and hurtful and cruel, and we must do the work to help them. Onward.

Iowa Lacks Public Land, But We Can Help Right Now

I love the outdoors. It’s a place of solitude and calm. It’s worth traveling for.

But it’s also necessary to preserve places here, near home. 

That’s why I’m going to flip my ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million county conservation bond.

The previous bond helped build out the beautiful Clear Creek and the Iowa River trails, where I’ve biked through rolling hills and to community events; acquire the Pechman Creek Delta, where I’ll be bow hunting for deer this fall; buy the Ciha Fen Preserve, which I discovered through Will Kapp’s lovely local hikes book (and where I was when I learned the result of the 2020 election and let out a deep sigh of relief); and with about 12 other big projects throughout Johnson County.

I want more and know we deserve it. Iowa ranks 47th on percentage of public land, and this is a meaningful step we can take locally to expand this and persevere more natural public spaces for the future.

When you vote, please take the time to flip your ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million Johnson County conservation bond.

Early voting started today.