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Nearly 30 years ago I began a business relationship with China. I never imagined those years would sharpen my appreciation for the greatness of America and help me understand how our nation became the world’s ideal.
The lesson had surprisingly little to do with China. It had everything to do with America.
Every successful business eventually learns a simple truth: its most valuable assets rarely appear on a balance sheet. Trust. Reputation. Goodwill. They take years to earn, yet can be spent with astonishing speed. The same is true of nations.
For much of my lifetime, America accumulated an extraordinary reserve of those assets. People around the world wanted to study here, invest here, build businesses here and raise families here. They listened to our music, watched our movies, admired our universities and embraced the optimism woven into the American story. Our greatest export was never merely our products. It was confidence in the American idea.
During my years in China, I helped many young Chinese obtain visas to study in the United States. They returned home as engineers, entrepreneurs, educators and business leaders. More importantly, they carried home something far more valuable than a diploma: firsthand experience with America. One of those former students, reflecting on today’s changing relationship between our countries, recently told me, “I feel like I’ve lost my second home.” I’ve thought about that sentence ever since.
China deserves enormous credit for its remarkable rise. Yet America’s contribution should not be forgotten. We educated students, invested capital, shared technology and became China’s largest customer. Here in Iowa, where agriculture remains our largest industry, farmers once joked that every other row of soybeans was headed to China. Today, much of that market has shifted to Brazil. Commodity prices remain under pressure, production costs continue to climb and margins have become painfully thin. Relationships that take decades to build can shift elsewhere far more quickly than they can be rebuilt.
Soybeans are simply one example. Markets follow relationships. Alliances follow relationships. Trust follows relationships. For generations, America’s greatest strategic advantage was never merely military strength or economic power. It was our ability to attract rather than compel.
The world is changing with breathtaking speed. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics and new geopolitical realities are reshaping the twenty-first century. America cannot afford to enter that future having unnecessarily diminished one of its greatest strategic advantages.
Every nation has the right to secure its borders, protect its technology and defend its interests. Those responsibilities are not in question. But strength and intimidation are not the same thing. Confidence and anger are not the same thing. A nation can protect itself without surrendering the qualities that caused others to admire it in the first place.
My generation will not live with every consequence of the choices America makes today. Our children and grandchildren will.
When we vote this November, I hope we look beyond the next news cycle and ask a larger question: Which course is most likely to preserve not only America's strength, but America’s character? The world will not wait while America decides what kind of nation it wants to be. It will continue building new relationships, discovering new markets and seeking new partners.
The world does not owe America its admiration. It never has. We earned it by the nation we became. We will keep it only by the nation we choose to be.
James Anderson, Pocahontas
Iowa Rep. Brett Barker’s (R-Nevada) constituent newsletter noted that the Government Oversight Committee heard a technology company’s presentation. The company’s AI tool helps local governments identify potential cost savings.
“Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent,” Barker wrote. “More transparency from this tool will help ensure their hard-earned dollars are being spent wisely.”
I agree! Let’s look at transparency in state spending.
Iowa’s private schools get millions of dollars from Education Savings Accounts annually. Gov. Kim Reynolds and her Republican posse established ESAs, or “school vouchers,” in 2023. ESAs subsidize private school tuitions with the state taxes we pay. Public schools must account for how they spend our tax dollars. Private schools do not. Don’t taxpayers deserve to know how private schools spend our money?
State Auditor Rob Sand’s job is to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in state spending. But Gov. Reynolds signed a bill that limits the auditor’s access to some state records. That signals that she doesn’t want transparency. Nor do the Republican legislators who voted for the bill. Iowa voters elected Sand because we trust him to do the job. Don’t we deserve to know if state agencies waste our money?
Why the seeming inconsistency? What do these two cases tell us? It seems majority-party lawmakers favor uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse other people commit. But they don’t want taxpayers to know about their own potential waste, fraud, and abuse. Because, you know, we can just trust them to spend our tax dollars wisely and honestly. Nothing to see here.
Yes, Rep. Barker, Iowa taxpayers deserve to know how our money is spent. How about full transparency in state-level spending, too?
Gordie Felger, Hiawatha
As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, it’s an opportunity not only to reflect on our nation’s history of service and innovation, but also to consider how we will continue building a stronger, more secure future. As a former legislator and a veteran of the Iowa National Guard, I’ve learned firsthand that our nation’s strength depends on two things: energy security and economic opportunity. Today, Iowa’s renewable energy industry is helping advance both priorities while creating meaningful careers for the men and women who have served our country.
In the armed forces, we are trained to solve problems, operate complex equipment, work safely in demanding environments and lead teams under pressure. These are exactly the qualities needed in today's energy sector. Across Iowa and throughout the United States veterans are finding careers building, operating, and maintaining wind farms, solar arrays, battery facilities and other infrastructure that powers our communities.
For many service members transitioning to civilian life, the renewable energy industry offers more than a paycheck. It offers purpose. Veterans understand the importance of mission-driven work and that helping deliver reliable, American-made energy is a mission worth supporting. These jobs allow former service members to contribute to our nation's security while providing for their families and strengthening local communities.
As someone who has spent many years serving Iowa, both in uniform and in public office, I strongly believe in embracing any opportunity we can to strengthen the economy, support our veterans and enhance our energy independence. The renewable energy industry does all of the above.
As we mark 250 years of American independence, let’s also invest in the industries that will help secure the next 250. By creating opportunities for those who have already answered the call to serve, we honor their sacrifice while building a stronger, more resilient America for generations to come.
Steve Warnstadt, Sioux City
As a gardener, I have mistakenly planted cultivars which became thugs, spreading into areas where they didn’t belong. Remembering that it’s MY garden, I pulled them out and planted something which served me better.
Elections are like that. They are OURS. We can pull out the freelancers and install public servants.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is that freelancing rogue in Iowa’s garden. Rather than staying in her own lane, serving us, she joins other states’ attempts to shield major industries from environmental oversight or to block minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes. Occasionally, she does stay in her litigation/advisory lane to arrange slap-on-the-wrist deals for polluting Iowa meat processors or to support Secretary of State Paul Pate’s surrender of Iowa voter rolls to Trump.
When Bird has wandered out of her physical boundaries, she has been spotted in the East Room, watching Trump sign his Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order and in New York, lending Trump emotional support in his call girl Stormy Daniels hush money trial.
It’s for sure that Iowa workers have not seen her helping them recover lost wages, unpaid overtime, or stolen tips.
On Nov. 3, Iowans can pull Bird out and select a different cultivar: Nate Willems. Because it’s OUR election and he’ll stay in his lane.
Karen Heidman, Sioux City
Remember that old saying about apples not falling far from the tree? Donald Trump was a good friend of Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump, Jr. and Barron Trump are good friends of Andrew Tate. Rotten tree. Rotten fruit.
Jim Walters, Iowa City
Throughout history, several dictators (Vladimir Lenin and Benito Mussolini) have reportedly said that the way to change existing governments was to “pluck the chicken one feather at a time.” That way, when you pluck that last feather, the existing government is so weakened it is ripe for a takeover.
Why do people stand passively by while the feathers are being systematically pulled out of their existing government? Maybe nobody notices as a single feather falls to the ground. Maybe some people think, “Oh well, that single feather isn’t worth fighting over.” And pretty soon the chicken is naked, and the government and social norms are weakened beyond repair.
We now have a president who is systematically plucking the feathers out of our democracy and our social norms. Many of the feathers he is pulling out of our democracy have one thing in common: an attempt to undermine our faith in the legitimacy of our basic institutions. Our free press, justice department, courts, elections, intelligence agencies, our Constitution and the rule of law are all under attack. The president tells us that we can no longer trust these institutions, institutions that are the very bedrock of our democracy. We are told that we can only trust Trump.
Truth and an acceptance of verifiable facts are indispensable to a healthy democracy. When a society begins to rely on dubious sources of information, indulges in conspiracy theories, and willingly believes lies if they fit their world view, that society is in trouble. Lies, skillfully employed, are powerful weapons, weapons that have been successfully used by many authoritarian leaders. Joseph Goebbels knew the power of lies, saying, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will eventually come to believe it.” Trump also knows all about the power of lies, saying, “If you tell people the same lie three times they will believe anything.” Trump lies all the time about everything. Facts and truth — just more feathers being pulled out of our democracy.
The feathers Trump is pulling out of the social fabric of our country are flying everywhere. He bullies, lies, is a racist, a misogynist, praises dictators, threatens private citizens with jail and enriches himself and his family while he is in office.
The list goes on and on and on. Everyday more and more feathers are falling to the ground, feathers that are being trampled into the dust by Trump.
If we continue to ignore all of the feathers that are being plucked out of our democracy, we may wake up and find ourselves shivering in the cold, just poor naked chickens, no longer soaring eagles. No longer free.
Our democracy is precious. Let’s protect it from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Barbara Paulding, Russell
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