Both Zach Lahn and Rob Sand represent encouraging change
After reading about Zach Lahn in the Aug. 11 Register, it is encouraging to think we may have two candidates for governor who are independent of global and national corporate control. Change is coming to Iowa. Iowa used to have all that the citizens needed: great soil, plenty of water, good infrastructure, strong culture and good educational system. Our federal and state government have failed Iowans. Our wealth and our children are leaving the state. It appears that Lahn and Sand both want to change that situation. Good.
Mike Delaney, Windsor Heights
Iowa doesn’t need an anti-ag activist in the Senate
In Iowa, we raise the highest-quality beef anywhere in the world, and that’s no coincidence. Raising cattle with my wife and son on our family farm near Sheffield, we go the extra mile to ensure that our cows are properly fed, groomed, and cared for. That’s what makes the difference in quality consumers can taste.
Being in this industry for my entire life, I’ve come to expect anti-agriculture activists on the coasts pushing Americans to stop eating meat. What I didn’t expect was for Iowa politicians to tow the same line.
And one of those politicians is Josh Turek, the Democrat running for U.S. Senate against Republican Ashley Hinson. In fact, Turek opposed legislation to stop fake meat from being labeled as real at grocery stores and restaurants. To me, this flies in the face of common sense. Consumers have the right to know whether they’re buying meat grown in a lab or raised on Iowa family farms.
This is just one example of Turek’s out-of-touch voting record. That is, when he decides to show up. Turek missed more than 260 votes this past legislative session, amounting to 58% of total votes cast. That isn’t someone who should be representing Iowans in the Senate, and surely, with his anti-ag record, he shouldn’t be the voice of Iowa farmers in Washington, D.C.
Farmers know who has their backs, and it isn’t a politician like Turek pushing fake meat and other liberal ideas. It’s a leader like Ashley Hinson, who will always go to bat for us.
Mark DeVries, Sheffield
Ashley Hinson sides with Trump, not Iowans
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson told us exactly who she intends to work for when she announced her candidacy for the Senate: “I have fought for President Trump in the House. … I’m running to be Trump’s ally in the U.S. Senate.”
Ashley Hinson has been my congresswoman for five years, and she has supported Trump’s harmful policies even though they hurt her constituents. She voted for his tariffs, which raised the cost of groceries and essential goods. She voted six times to support the war in Iran, even as the conflict has driven up fuel prices and farmers’ fertilizer costs, with no end in sight. She voted for Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires, paid for on the backs of ordinary Iowans through cuts to healthcare, food assistance, Medicare/Medicaid, educational loans, Social Security, programs that assist Iowa families.
Many Iowa families are struggling because of Trump’s policies and war. But Hinson has proved that her priority is being Trump’s ally, not Iowa’s advocate. We deserve a senator whose first loyalty is to the people of Iowa, someone who listens to constituents, stands up for our communities, and puts our interests ahead of any president or political agenda.
Karen Pratte, Waterville
Cancer crisis demands a new approach, which Chris Jones would bring
When I got my cancer diagnosis eight years ago, no one asked if I was a Republican or a Democrat. Cancer does not care what party you are. Whether you opt out of politics, are an independent voter, or claim an R or D after your name, we all drink Iowa water.
Iowa water is high in nitrate levels, and decades of research indicates high nitrate levels cause birth defects, thyroid disease and cancer. Des Moines Water Works spends $70,000 a day trying to keep it at or below 10 parts per million. Research could determine if that level is low enough.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is dropping re-assessment of cancer-causing nitrates despite nitrate pollution reaching crisis levels in many U.S. water sources.
If you or someone you love is suffering or has died from cancer or you worry about that future, please learn more and vote for Chris Jones for Iowa secretary of agriculture. Iowa must move ahead, and Jones, an expert in water science, will lead the way. Before another follow-up appointment, I’m asking you to join the campaign for clean water.
Maribeth Newman, Ankeny
Suppression of third parties is bad for our country
Many mainstream Democrats state that the Democratic Socialists should stay in their own party and stop trying to take over the Democratic Party.
I am sure the Democratic Socialists would have been happy to do so, if the Democratic and Republican parties had not designed a system that makes it virtually impossible for a third party or independent candidate to successfully compete in any election. A significant portion of the Republican Party is made up of libertarians who are now registered Republicans rather than registered Libertarian Party members for the same reason.
We need a system that allows for the inclusion of a third party in general elections. Then the thousands of Americans who are not represented by either the Republican Party or the Democratic party would finally be heard and represented.
Tom Andersen, Des Moines
The dangerous myth of democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is an economic fairy tale wrapped in a moral crusade, and it is time to stop treating its proponents like harmless idealists. Their well-intentioned rhetoric masks a destructive reality: Every time a state attempts to manipulate free markets, the working class pays the price.
To defeat this ideology, we must aggressively dismantle its favorite myths. First, stop letting socialists claim Scandinavia. Sweden and Denmark are hyper-competitive, free-market capitalist economies, not socialist utopias. They fund their welfare states with crushing middle-class taxes, not just by “soaking the rich.”
Second, good intentions cannot repeal the laws of economics. History proves that wealth taxes trigger capital flight, price controls guarantee shortages, and socialized healthcare replaces market efficiency with agonizing, government-rationed wait times. Look at the wreckage of rent-controlled cities or the collapsing British National Health Service for proof.
Slapping the word “democratic” onto socialism does not neutralize its inherent tyranny. If a majority votes to confiscate your property, it is still theft. Centralized government planning always requires individual liberty to be sacrificed to enforce the state’s master plan. True compassion means liberating people through free-market capitalism, not chaining them to bureaucratic dependency.
Wayne Hoffman, Urbandale
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Both Zach Lahn and Rob Sand represent encouraging change | Letters
Reporting by The Register’s readers, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By The Register's readers, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
