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.’
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The pundits and ‘wise men’ – especially the ones in tech – tell a tired narrative about jobs and automation. It goes something like this: Automation destroys jobs. As it gets more sophisticated, it will destroy millions of jobs, leaving people destitute and desperate. Andrew Yang built an entire presidential campaign – one he centered on UBI – around this narrative. Tech libertarians love telling this story.
But it’s not just wacky candidates and tech geeks. Classic sci-fi took up the banner all the same, and they did so as far back as the 1950s. From Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano to Isaac Asimov‘s The Caves of Steel, we see it from every direction. These days, popular sci-fi series like The Expanse simply take it for granted and bake it into their plots.
OK, so the narrative isn’t entirely wrong. Yes, automation destroys jobs. Marx pointed out more than a century ago that this happens. At the same time, it redirects and creates jobs. The net impact of automation on overall employment? It’s less clear than one might think. When we look at how work…works, we find that automation poses a bigger threat.
This post is about that threat.
Welcome to a special birthday edition of the reading list, since I celebrated my birthday yesterday! Does that change my reading habits? Eh, not really. I suppose this list includes more fiction and abstract texts. But, that’s pure coincidence.
Let’s see what we’ve got this month.
After I got my second COVID vaccine shot and hit full immunity, I immediately scheduled a visit with my parents. While at their house, I discovered something interesting: an old membership card from my time in the Young People’s Socialist League!
Let’s take a brief trip down memory lane.
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?
