Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Iowa (Page 9 of 15)

NGOism

NGOism and Local Government

July 22, 2021 /

I read an article recently in Catalyst on the phenomenon of ‘NGOism.’ Here’s the basic idea: NGOs and other non-profit organizations tend to increase the influence of the private sector on social welfare systems. In addition, the internal logic of NGO orgs (501c3 status, funding methods, et al.) prevent them from seriously challenging the capitalist system. It also pushes them toward endorsing technocratic approaches to problems and prevents them from treating politics as the playing out of conflicts over class interests.

There’s not a lot here that’s new. NGOism sounds pretty familiar. People have criticized them many times along these linkes. And we know some of the other problems related to NGOism: low pay in the sector, and so on.

But after reading the article, I thought about local implications. Here’s one way NGOism plays out in my city. I serve on our city Housing and Community Development Commission. Among other tasks, we award lots of money to NGOs and non-profits.

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Jon Green

How Did Jon Green Do?

June 9, 2021 /

Jon Green – former mayor of Lone Tree known to many locals as a Sanders-wing Democrat wearing a cowboy hat – won the Democratic nomination for Johnson County Supervisor. Sanders even endorsed him. And then he defeated Phil Hemingway for the special election victory.

I briefly mentioned Green last month in a post about the perils facing Iowa Democrats in the 2020s. In short, I think the Democrats stand little chance to win statewide the rest of this decade. Why? National demographic changes in voting leave them with a base that’s too small to win. I argued that Iowa Democrats should, in response, re-imagine and rework their base for the future. They should organize new voters and run new sorts of candidates.

Candidates like Jon Green. Or Stacey Walker, or Cathy Glasson. Were I to approach the topic in more detail, I’d suggest Mazahir Salih as a possibility. The point is that Democrats should run candidates who will focus on immigrants, low-wage workers, non-voters, POC voters, and other growing populations in the state of Iowa who don’t currently vote Democratic but whose interests align with the left.

So, how did Jon Green do? Did he help make the case that he could do some of these things statewide?

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covid-19 anniversary one year

One Year of COVID-19: A Review

March 11, 2021 /

So, there’s an anniversary coming up, and it’s one none of us are happy about. Which one? It’s been almost one year since COVID-19 became the issue in the U.S. and much of the world. I chose March 11 for this post for symbolic reasons: it’s the one-year mark since the last time I went to a movie theater.

I saw 1917 on March 11, 2020, in case anyone’s interested.

We’d all like to get past COVID-19. I’m sure almost all of us want to meet in-person more regularly. Some have handled these feelings better than others. Some – e.g., Kim Reynolds in Iowa – have tried to force it before it’s time. But everyone shares in the dissatisfaction with the COVID-19 world.

In the last year, we moved from a ‘normal’ world (for better or worse) to a scary one to a manageable one (if you have a mask) to a strange adjustment to a ‘new normal.’ Along the way, we saw lots of new terms and oddities, e.g., ‘essential worker.’ As the vaccines make their rounds (I’m getting my first shot tomorrow!), let’s reflect a bit on this.

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