Pursuing the impossible veep dream

Quick. Who was Herbert Hoover’s vice president or George H.W. Bush’s? Can’t remember? It is not a sign of early dementia. Vice Presidents are soon forgotten, their accomplishments noted in pencil on a tiny pad. After being sworn in. a vice president can well ask, “What do I do now?” The answer never changes: fantasize about being president and don’t stumble on the way to the bathroom.

Kim Reynolds might like to be vice president if Donald Trump wins again. I don’t know if it is true, but I’ve heard that Donald Trump, if he isn’t in a suite at Rikers Island, will consider her, but only if Stormy Daniels turns the nomination down.

Vice presidents are rarely a consideration when people vote. They vote for the presidential nominee. Not many say, for example, I don’t care much for H. W., but I really like Dan Quayle. Or I don’t care much for Franklin Roosevelt, but I think John Nance Garner is wonderful. In 1960, Lyndon Johnson certainly helped John Kennedy overcome anti-Catholic prejudice and carry Texas by less than 2 percent, although the 24 electoral votes made no difference.

Sometime a person is chosen by their sex. Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro, hoping to make a long shot shorter with the first woman nominated for vice president. It didn’t work. President Biden (who did make it) doubled down with Kamela Harris, a Black woman, attracting, in theory, both Black and women voters. She did, but probably not enough to ensure victory through votes Joe Biden would otherwise not have received. She also had another attractive quality: electoral votes from a state Biden would have won anyway. Occasionally a candidate is chosen for the ability to be president if that were to happen.

What would Kim Reynolds bring to a ticket? Iowa is a red state today and will be in 2024. That Reynolds and the legislature have gone far right to look conservative enough for the Trump base is obvious. Trump would probably carry Iowa even if a resurrected Leon Trotsky ran with him. Reynolds is not likely to add a single electoral vote Trump would have not received with anyone else.

The quality of life in Iowa is a victim of an impossible dream: Kim Reynolds as vice president on the steppingstone to the Oval Office is fantasy.

In her quest for applause, Kim Reynolds has led us to a state of disarray. Funding for public education has been the victim of mass vouchers, sending my money and yours to private schools. People who don’t read books but know the titles of some to ban heard sounds of encouragement from the governor.

The governor has long supported legislation that prohibits transgender girls from sports competition. This year she signed a bill into law that denies some young people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity while expressing her regret.

Conservative legislators have made America great again before pushing our state off the decency cliff. Whether it is vouchers or books or taxes or bathrooms, Reynolds, Pat Grassley, and conservative buddies are destroying Iowa decency and tradition in pursuit of her wildest dream.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary.