War on Iowa will extend past November

President Trump and the ayatollahs blew up any hopes of taming inflation with renewed bombing of Iran and the Persian Gulf, just as fuel prices were softening.

Gas jumped and stocks slumped when Trump said that the cease-fire was over, and that the Iranians are “scum” and “kuckoo” after they attacked commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Even if you were able to dodge a 50% hike in fertilizer prices this year by booking early, the enduring war and failed negotiations ensure a troublesome 2027 for farmers and agribusiness. Trump just asked Congress for an additional $11 billion for farm disaster payments on top of the $12 billion in disaster checks already cashed. More perks should be tucked in before the November elections.

That might not be enough to get Ashley Hinson of Marion over the hump in her bid to defend a Republican-held senate seat from Democrat Josh Turek of Council Bluffs.

Net farm income is expected to decline slightly this year nationally. It won’t get any easier as a third of the world’s fertilizer ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump last week laid out at least $500 million to seed new domestic ammonia production (made from natural gas). Nitrogen, critical for corn, is bound to get pricier for fall bookings.

This bombing is bad timing.

Not that farmers would vote Democrat or that the farm bloc is a sizable consideration anymore, even in Iowa. Prosperity in rural Iowa still springs from the land. Agriculture and food production drive the Fourth Congressional District, the most conservative part of the state where Hinson is not that well-known and where enthusiasm is ebbing. She needs Sioux County to turn out.

Trump doubling down on war does not look good from Sioux Center or Orange City, already hurting from the loss of soy and pork export sales. Farmers may be forced to cut back on their inputs. Yields suffer. It depresses the psyche in Cherokee, which could tamp down the GOP vote.

Hinson can try to run and hide, but heretofore she always has been eager to accept Trump’s embrace. She was disappointed the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship (guard the help in the dairy barn). She is a solid Trumper. So is Zach Lahn, full MAHA and MAGA and what-have-you running for governor. He made his money from the Koch Kingdom, which is having a heyday running up these fertilizer prices.

Hinson blames Washington for the affordability rut. She should look in the mirror of the Congressional Republican cloakroom. Tariffs lead to trade wars with our best friends, including Canada where we get most of our potash. Shooting wars don’t end with zealots who refuse to relent. Medicaid cuts that Hinson supported are closing rural health clinics in Iowa. How are you supposed to keep the young folk home when you can’t deliver a baby in the county seat anymore?

Health care is urgent with voters. They were not so concerned with Iran’s ability to bomb Omaha. People who voted for Trump thought they were voting against forever wars. Now they can’t get in to see a doctor who fell victim to Elon Musk’s chain saw. Hinson was all in on that circus, which saw the bird flu workers get laid off. Farmers are having a hard time finding help to sign up for those programs because the USDA office staff is not in.

We better get all the money we can before November, because nobody will care about Iowa next year with a war raging and NPK prices rising. The disaster payments and year-round E15 fuel might buy enough votes for Hinson. They will not cover the lingering higher costs engendered by Trump & Co.

Zach Lahn will be challenged to defend it all. Why is Iowa’s economy tanked? Why are we cutting funding through the National Institutes of Health to the University of Iowa when we have the worst cancer problem in America? Democrat Rob Sand will ask that of Lahn if he can ever find him. Why are we bombing Iran when we can’t keep the clinic open at Ottumwa? What about Iowa first, for once? And why can’t a kid read Huck Finn in school anymore? Please explain why we foster ignorance.

War with seedy-looking men in robes seemed like a good, unifying distraction from the pedophile class at the time. Until we found out we can’t drop enough bombs to make the kuckoo birds quit clucking. Now we continue to endure chants of “Death To America!” except that diesel prices are on a roller coaster bound for outer space.

Fortunately for the powers that be, Iowa is inclined against an upset. Trump has all our voter files now. Sand and Turek may hold slim leads that could vanish. The bumbler-in-chief is doing all he can in the Persian tar pits to hand them indisputable victories.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. His latest book, Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World, is available from Ice Cube Press. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

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