Rare was the Iowa House Democrat who showed up Tuesday night to hear Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds deliver her Condition of the State Address. Reynolds typically provides her remarks during the day, but this year decided to do the address on Tuesday evening.
House Speaker Pat Grassley thanked the “handful” of Democrats who showed up to listen. He called it an even that is “something that is so important for the legislature to see what the Governor’s agenda looks like.”
It is too bad that so many elected Iowa Democrats decided not to be there in person for the Condition of the State Address.
Let’s imagine, for a moment, that roles were reversed. There was a Democrat governor who happened to be female. And only a handful of elected Republicans showed up to hear her Condition of the State Address.
If we were Democrats, we would claim misogyny. We’d claim sexism. We’d claim it is some microaggression in the GOP’s so-called War on Women.
If we were Democrats, we’d call for these Republicans to “rise above the division” and show up in person to hear what the governor has planned for our great state.
And if we were in the media, there’d be stories about the lack of Republicans who decided to show up for the Democrat governor’s speech.
Speaker Pat Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver would have to account for where their members were and why they didn’t see the governor’s address as being worthy of their time.
But we’re not Democrats. And that’s not the case. The roles aren’t reversed — and one reason is very likely because of petty, childish things like not showing up for the Condition of the State Address in droves.
There is no need to come up with some conspiracy about Democrat misogyny or Democrat sexism or any other -ism that explains why people are so petty.
The bottom line is for all the talk of “unity” Democrats provide when it comes to national politics — which, by the way, has crazy coincidental timing considering Democrats control the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and White House — they really don’t give a rip about unity.
They care about control. They care about power.
And right now, in Iowa, they don’t have any.
That is because they do things like they did Tuesday night.
Show up. Show respect. Listen.
Not difficult. Unless you’re a Democrat harboring animosity over elections when it is instead time to come together on policy.
