Editorials: A state of martial law

Martial law was imposed last weekend on Los Angeles when President Trump ordered in the California National Guard to disband lawful protests over the deportation of Latino immigrants. The military mobilization came over the objection of local and state officials, who felt they had any problems under control. When the Guard showed up, the scene exploded. It was incited by Trump. He wanted to create violence where there was none. He wanted to pick a fight with a Democratic governor.

Likewise, the masked goons representing ICE stormed a Lake Street taqueria in Minneapolis, in full military gear to round up a few Mexicans. The troops were all too eager to tussle with protestors six blocks from where police murdered George Floyd, and where National Guard troops fired at CNN journalists.

It’s theatre. ICE is making a scene to round up a few dozen immigrants in hopes of mixing it up with some snowflakes and Latinos. They are not moving to deport all undocumented serfs as Trump promised. The administration is picking its fights for the TV cameras.

The idea is to instill fear in the people: Do not protest losing your rights or you will be crushed.

We are living in a police state. We never thought we could imagine that for the United States of America. We have not moved past Birmingham, Watts, Kent State or the North Minneapolis racial conflicts. Goons with guns are in charge, step in line. While they moved in on Los Angeles, the new pope from Chicago last weekend said people must welcome the stranger.

America is losing its way.

The First Amendment guarantees the right to protest. Quickly it is becoming a facade. They can storm the Catholic school or church. They can muzzle the free press. They can ignore the courts. They can run over you with a tank — don’t think they won’t, when four students were shot to death by National Guard troops in Ohio, and when Black men were left hanging from trees in the Deep South or dying face down under a knee from police in Minneapolis.

Earnest workers with legal papers live in fear in Storm Lake. The terrorism is having its desired effect. The Constitution becomes just a piece of yellowed paper. We are ceding our rights to a police state.

For moderation

Iowa has a chance to reclaim its good sense and moderation in the 2026 midterm elections. Gov. Kim Reynolds is not running for re-election. Good riddance. She has taken glee in banning books, trying to make gays second-class citizens and stripping women of their rights. She presided over the closings of dozens of rural nursing homes and health care providers through a miserly Medicaid reform that handed the keys over to the insurance industry. The attorney general is suing a sheriff for not agreeing to arrest Latinos because they are Latino.

We are off the tracks, off kilter, in the ditch. We have the worst-performing state economy in the country. We are growing stupid, attacking higher education.

Young people are fleeing Iowa along with ob/gyn practitioners. We invite hogs to replace them.

It is time to get our pragmatic bearings and lose some of the cruel zeal that seeks to put people down and keep them under your boot.

Iowa is not San Francisco. We know where we are. Neither are we some hillbilly state where Black and Native history is suppressed or distorted. We value higher education. We ask for clean air and clean water. Pay teachers and cops a living wage. Don’t give away the farm to corporate overlords or wolves masquerading as Christians. That is what made Iowa great: pragmatic, honest, tolerant and intrinsically egalitarian. We are forgetting that. We need a change of pace.

Harold Hughes is dead. State Auditor Rob Sand is running as a Democrat. He will do. He has a lot of money and not a lot of progressive oompah. Fear not, bankers. Julie Stauch is also running for governor. Good for her. She is from Des Moines and worked for Planned Parenthood, which has not been a recipe for success in Iowa statewide politics.

Far as we can tell, the leading Republican candidate for governor is Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, who was happy to take money from boss hog Smithfield while making a living complaining about the Chinese, which owned Smithfield. Being a hypocrite is not a liability in Iowa politics anymore. We have given up on honesty. We will take pragmatism, at least. Feenstra voted for the Medicaid reductions that could destroy yet more nursing homes and rural hospitals. He complains about immigrants who feed us. Feenstra is the best of the GOP lot.

Iowa needs a balance of political power. We will have a Republican legislature. We need a Democrat as governor. The GOP has taken Iowa too far to the right. The budget is $900 million short of revenue from overspending by one-party government. Property taxes are out of control, and Republicans can’t figure out what to do. We can start by electing people with fiscal sense and common sense. We need moderation. Iowa has gone radical.

Why did Iowa go radical? Partly, because the Democratic Party gave up on us. It happened a long time ago. We were pretty successful when Democrat Tom Vilsack was governor tussling with a Republican legislature. Checks and balances forced us to cooperate. Oh, for those days again.

Just making do

In a state where book bans are celebrated it should come as no great surprise that the Storm Lake Public Library will cut its hours and one full-time equivalent position. The library and neighboring Witter Gallery are sure to suffer first when the city can’t maintain decent streets or storm sewers.

Library Director Elizabeth Huff says they will “make do.” We suppose you have to say that or quit. City officials blame the legislature and how it sets property valuations. Seldom do they cite themselves for managing us into such a hole. To wit: “Darn, we should have been checking that tax increment financing account because we should have known that Buena Vista County doesn’t understand it. Too bad we had to blow more money on lawyers than it would cost to keep up the library hours. We are not asleep and assure you that you that everything is under control so long as you are willing to accept less with a sharply higher property tax bill.”

Why have a library? Who reads books? If the poor people can’t get on the computers they can always eat cake. There is no unemployment office in Storm Lake. It is supposed to be in the library, on the computers under shorter hours. There is no Social Security office in Storm Lake. If the elderly can’t get online they can roll their walker up to Spencer, for the time being, as you cannot hop a bus to Sioux City.

And we still don’t know where our tax increment financing revenue went. The lawyers are working on that.

This is the sort of government to which we have become accustomed. Low income taxes, high property and sales taxes, crappy streets and roads, a failing water system, inaccessible libraries. Circuses and cake, fill up while your rights wither away. We will make do. We were better. We used to be the most literate people. Now we are just cheap. Making do. Getting by. We’re good enough for second-rate. Good bye to the smart young people who value a public library with a gallery next door. Write home as you can.