I’ve focused lately on some of the failures of Iowa Democrats to connect with voters. In those posts, I focused on partisan issues and the changing electorate. And in that latter post, I mentioned “partisan insults” without saying much about what I had in mind. Yeah, let’s talk about that one. Here’s a case: ‘COVID Kim‘, as used against Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.’
Tone Policing and Civility?
Let’s start by getting clear on a few things. I’m talking about insults like ‘COVID Kim’ in the context of political success. The reasons why people use the insult don’t really concern me here. If people feel angry at Reynolds and take it out through insults, I won’t deny the legitimacy of the anger. And so, I’m not tone policing here. Or talking about tone at all.
This also isn’t a post about civility in politics. That became a hot topic awhile back. Some argue that calls for ‘civility’ amount to a kind of tacit racism. Others want to use the call to work toward a gentler, more collegial politics in partisan times. They want the kind of society Robert Putnam called for in Bowling Alone or The Upswing.
I don’t really have a settled opinion on any of this, and I’ll leave it for another time. For my own style, I stress treating people as competent reasoners until they show otherwise. This stance comes from my history in analytic philosophy. I don’t mind engaging with people I disagree with, and I’m not a zealot. But I also have little tolerance for intellectual laziness or trolling.
Rather than tone or civility, I’m interested in success (also, to some extent, evidence). And I think ‘COVID Kim’ stands out as an notable unsuccessful insult. It comes off to most Iowans as partisan and/or petty.
‘COVID Kim’ as a Miss
‘COVID Kim’ comes mostly from Iowa Democrats, though the insult also gained a bit of traction on the left. Why did they come up with it? And what do Iowans think?
The basic idea seems to be that Kim Reynolds did an especially bad job handling the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to other governors or public officials. And while it can be hard to tell exactly what Iowans think – polling was a bit all over the place – ‘COVID Kim’ seems to have mostly missed. It’s popular with the Democratic base and unpopular with everyone else. Reynolds’s overall approval ratings aren’t great, but they remain about where they were before her 2018 win.
Most Iowans object to at least a few things Reynolds did during the pandemic. Some object to almost all of it. But most Iowans give her the benefit of the doubt. And when they see Democratic criticism, I think they mostly see partisan politicking rather than policy critique.
On Iowans’ Reaction to ‘COVID Kim’
At a basic level, it’s not clear to me Iowans are wrong on this stance. Oh, I have plenty of problems with some of the specific decisions Reynolds made. Her biggest blunder was the decision in late May and early June 2020 to re-open the state a couple weeks before the evidence said she should. This probably caused the second wave to start sooner in Iowa than in other states. Other sources – notably Bleeding Heartland – also pointed to some specific bad decisions, like the decision to turn down federal aid for testing of schoolchildren.
But the most important problem here – and the biggest reason ‘COVID Kim’ failed to land – is that COVID-19 was always more a national problem than a state problem. And Donald Trump’s COVID blunders swamped anything Reynolds did. For this reason, Iowans focused on Trump. And Reynold’s actions didn’t lead to noticeably worse outcomes in Iowa than in other states.
That latter point tripped up quite a few Democrats. We heard at various points during the pandemic that Iowa was doing worse than Illinois or Minnesota. We also heard complaints about a slow vaccine rollout. But while that was all true at specific points, it wasn’t true overall. In fact, vaccination rates in Iowa stand very close to the national average. Iowa’s COVID-19 case numbers remain well above the national average, but death rates stand right around the average. And Illinois had generally worse outcomes than Iowa overall.
In other words, the data don’t support the core contention of ‘COVID Kim’ – that Reynolds did an unusually bad job, as compared to other governors. It doesn’t fit with everyday experience. Ultimately, that’s why it failed.
