Commentary: Why Listen?

Pundits worried about a convention-decided nomination for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate claim the prolonged primary/caucus season is hurting the party. Reasons cited for this conclusion include a lack of difference between Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s proposals on various hot-button issues. Another argument frequently given is that Obama’s supporters won’t all support Clinton but Clinton’s supporters will back Obama. The problem is not with the battle for the nomination, though. The Democratic Party is in crisis because it fails to acknowledge the vast differences in priorities between what have been called the academic liberals and the street-level liberals. There are Clinton supporters who will not vote for Obama because he appears to represent the academic side of the party and all that implies about helping people who live on Main Street or Wall Street but not on Second Street or 125th Street.

The repetitive claim that Obama would pick up the Clinton supporters in a general election has a famililar ring. With the fifth anniversary of the United States military march towards Baghdad observed recently, several news programs revisited media coverage of the action. Five years ago the media repeatedly stated as fact that any opposition to Pres. George W. Bush’s decision would evaporate once the troops crossed the border. In both instances, voters are told what they will do, not what is expected or hoped.

Four years ago as I talked with people in various states about their voter registration status and if they intended to vote, I encountered many women who proudly stated they had never voted. They believed the government had never done anything for them and they didn’t want to have anything to do with the government. I kept thinking of what these women had told me as I watched John Kerry’s campaign unfold. Many people thought that anyone who was not George W. Bush would win the election so they did not feel any need to listen to the concerns of people outside their immediate circles.

The decision of the Waukee city council to pull out of the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority partnership is yet another example of how the lack of voice is a greater separator than are differences based on political parties. Communities in the Ankeny area and ordinary citizens in Des Moines also feel as though they do not have a say in choices made by DART. In a discussion document from the March 2008 DART Commission meeting, a comprehensive plan for the transit authority included downtown development as leading the region. That is a singular downtown, implying it is only the Des Moines downtown. How do restaurants, theatres, and bars in downtown Des Moines provide local jobs and business revenue for the communities of Waukee and Ankeny?

Growing businesses in outlying communities, not just housing commuters, is important to people who live in Iowa. However, if those communities’ voices are not heard, DART cannot succeed in the long term. It is a good lesson for the Democrats, too.

M.R. Field edited Leading Voices: Iowa.