By Keith Dinsmore
Barbara Leach has long been a participant at Democratic National Conventions. This year -- her eighth convention -- the former vice chair of the Iowa Democratic Party and DNC executive committee member has a new role as the president of My Rural America, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to raising "bread and butter" issues to the forefront of the public agenda.
On Tuesday afternoon at Coors Field in Denver, Leach assembled an impressive group of party leaders to address a diverse audience interested in learning in the economic messages needed to win over traditionally GOP-leaning rural voters.
Leach, a former co-owner of a family farm near Atlantic, founded My Rural America in 2005 to offer education on progressive policymaking and leadership training for rural Americans who want to learn about how national policymaking affects their daily lives. "We focus upon bread and butter issues like the Farm Bill, education, access to health care and other areas where the 60 million people who live in rural communities are often short-changed," Leach said Tuesday evening.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, who grew up in the small farming community of Brooklyn in Poweshiek County, moderated a panel that pointed out how the challenges rural residents face are exacerbated by their distance from metropolitan areas.
Braley said that it's important for leaders in the Democratic party understand that "rural America is critical to the overall success of our country."
Braley, who won 10 of the 12 counties in his district when he won an open-seat race by 12 percent in 2006, said many people told him to not "waste his time" campaigning in rural areas. "I knew that if I worked hard, and went out into the rural parts of my district, that I could convince rural voters to vote for a Democrat," he said.
Leach points out that rural schools receive only 24 percent of the money spent on education while they educate 40 percent of the nation's students, for example. Lack of broadband internet access in many rural communities makes it more difficult to start and operate small businesses, placing them at a disadvantage.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the fiery independent from Vermont who caucuses with Senate Democrats, set the stage for a panel that explored "tools for change." Sanders pointed the way to the need for new "green jobs," energy independence, affordable health care for all, and wiring rural areas for high speed internet by emphasizing budget issues.
"We've got to get this budget under control immediately and the first steps for that is to change the tax code so that middle class citizens will no longer carry the heavy burden while the richest people in this country have been given a pass," said Sanders. "If you believe as I do that our middle class is shrinking with too many people sliding over the edge into poverty, then we have to get the budget and tax code under control so that we can move our country forward. Otherwise, we will soon become a second rate nation that has laid its own path into poverty."
Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio keynoted the program, saying that the shrinking middle class has adversely affected rural America. He underlined the fact that 60 percent of the casualties suffered in the Iraq war are coming from rural areas, indicating that families from these communities have borne a disproportionate military burden compared to more affluent urban areas.
"You don't have to be a policy wonk to understand how dangerous our country's situation is," said Strickland. "All you have to do is ask yourself a few questions: Are you better off today than you were eight years ago? Do you really have health care you can trust when you're sick?"
He criticized the current system for excluding for excluding people when they get sick because "you're lowering their bottom line."
Panelists included leaders from various walks of life including Dr. Joe Shirley, president of the Navajo Indian tribe; Larry Mitchell, government affairs director of the American Corn Growers Association; John Hanse, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, and representatives from the Pennslvania State Education Association and Communications Workers of America.
Sarah Swisher, a nurse from Iowa City who is a superdelegate to the convention, addressed health care concerns as a single mother.
"The bottom line regarding health care accessibility is that we're really on a path pack to the covered wagon days," said Swisher. "Our rural hospitals are in serious danger of closing their doors, our lack of broadband makes it more difficult to recruit doctors to rural communities, and more people who live in our small towns put off going to the doctor because they can't afford it," she pointed out.
"Although rural concerns have often been overlooked by the current administration, we are optimistic that the economic benefits of jobs associated with new energy sources and opportunities that result from increased internet access in rural areas can help us improve the quality of life for those who choose to live in rural America," Leach said. "In these last days before the election, our goal is to help mobilize rural voters and make sure they are armed with the information they need to make sure their voices are heard loud and clear in the halls of Congress and among federal decision-makers."
-- Dinsmore, a former Iowa newspaper editor and publisher, is now a political media consultant based in Des Moines who was communications director for Joe Biden's campaign in Iowa.Labels: DNC2008
