Editorials: Harris could win Iowa

Kamala Harris dominated Donald Trump in Tuesday’s televised debate. She played the methodical prosecutor. He took on the role of angry, incoherent gasbag. It was good TV for about 40 minutes when Trump started frothing into the camera about Haitians coming to eat your dog and cat. It was all downhill to bedtime from there. Afterwards, Single Cat Lady Taylor Swift endorsed Harris.

It was the most-hyped debate we can remember. After Joe Biden melted onstage in the first presidential debate, the stakes were raised to stratospheric levels by the punditry. We suspected that Harris would hold her own as an experienced trial lawyer. She did more than that. It was a takedown.

Harris got under Trump’s skin by suggesting that fans leave his rallies early as he rambles on about how life hasn’t treated him fairly. She mocked him, laughed at him, rested her chin on her index finger toying with her next parry. Trump was no match. He looked as bad as Biden did during the first debate, a performance so weak he was convinced to step aside for Harris. Trump is old, feeble and vain, visibly so in prime time before what was sold as a record audience.

It was so bad it made us wonder once more, could Harris win Iowa?

Yes, if she tried.

Barack Obama won the state twice before it was abandoned by Hillary Clinton. The state has not fundamentally changed in character. Gov. Reynolds is among the least popular governors in America. Iowans are uncomfortable with an agenda built on censoring books, shaming gays and banning abortion at six weeks. They are outright opposed to school vouchers. Iowans will listen if Democrats speak to their issues.

Democrats haven’t shown up. Organizing America, Obama’s youth brigade, worked Storm Lake hard. Where are they now? Thousands of Latinos who are repulsed by Trump and Reynolds are neglected. The Fourth Congressional District is completely ignored. Little wonder that rural voters are not attracted to the minority point of view.

People around here know that immigrants are not criminally insane predators. We know them to be patriotic and hard-working. They would like to be citizens if we would let them. Voters also know that the cornerstone of Trump’s economic policies will choke Iowa. But if you never ask for their vote, you are less likely to get it.

Harris running mate Tim Walz could do a lot of damage in an airport tour of Dubuque, Davenport, Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Sioux City, with a detour to a small town like Storm Lake that is trying to make things work.

Harris is obliged to bury Trump. After that debate performance, and with these huge fundraising hauls and voter registration surges, she should broaden the field beyond the seven swing states. Iowa is a pretty cheap state to win in an environment that favors change. She has the money, the momentum and the message to reclaim lost territory in Iowa. The Democrats should not squander the opportunity to finish off this malignancy to our politics that Trump engenders.

Methane growth

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever, according to prominent climate scientists who published their findings in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes greatly to warming temperatures. Emissions are 2.6 times higher than they were in the 1800s.

Most of the growth in recent years comes from livestock production, the data compiled by the Global Carbon project, where emissions have increased by 189%. If we don’t reduce methane, temperature increases will be intolerable.

Solutions are at hand. We can put more cattle on grass and out of feedlots. We can change cattle diets. We can even change the gut biome to reduce or completely eliminate cows belching methane. The science is there. Our politics is what lags.

If we take methane emissions seriously — and we should, considering the California wildfire smoke that congests us here in Iowa — then we should respond with programs that supplant corn with grass, that put cattle back onto our rolling hills, and with research that demonstrates how to produce protein while not burning down the house. First, we must admit that we have a problem. Iowa is not quite there yet while the planet is on fire.

Feeding the world and saving the planet are not mutually exclusive. We need systems that accommodate both. We cannot sustain livestock production as we are now doing it. Planed change is better than forced change. Change we must.