Grassley, Kauffman make case for Republican votes

WATERLOO - Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann couldn't resist offering a history lesson to the younger people gathered at the local party headquarters who are helping volunteer to elect Republican candidates up and down the ticket.

He's heard the discussions taking place throughout the 2016 election cycle, the stereotypes about the Republican Party and the talk of breaking glass ceilings and protecting freedoms. And as a history professor, Kaufmann had to make the case for a progressive Grand Old Party.

'There are some parties that talk about action. There are other parties that were baptized and were born in action,” Kaufmann said.

He reminded the two dozen people gathered for a get-out-the-vote effort Saturday morning, in the final three days before the election, that Republicans were formed as an anti-slavery party. He reminded them of the history in Iowa of the Republicans' role in electing women first, particularly in Iowa House speaker Linda Upmeyer and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst.

'So, Democratic Party, you talk all you want, you demagogue all you want. You want something done at the base level of fairness and equality in this country, and in this state, all you've got to do is look at the Grand Old Party,” Kauffman told the two dozen Republicans present.

Even as Democrats elected the first African-American president in Barack Obama and have made Hillary Clinton the first woman to be nominated from a major party, Kaufmann said Republicans young and old can celebrate the Republican Party's efforts to shatter glass ceilings and champion human freedom.

But Kaufmann did allow that Clinton's presidency would be unprecedented.

'There is absolutely nothing in history that even begins to give precedent for what we would have, if she was elected president,” Kaufmann said. 'We've been given a chance to see just the kind of corruption that Hillary Clinton will bring to the White House.”

Kaufmann criticized those Republicans who would withhold their support from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying Trump was selected by the 'grass roots” of the party and the election presents a binary choice.

'We don't get to pick, like a smorgasbord, who it is … we've got our two candidates; you have your two choices, and you have to pick Donald Trump for change,” Kaufmann said.

He also repeated, as he said during his last stop in Black Hawk County, that Republicans should get behind Donald Trump if only to help prevent the United States Supreme Court from trending more liberal.

Kaufmann praised U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is running for re-election this year, for being 'an absolute treasure” and 'a treasure with a backbone of steel” for his efforts to deny a hearing on Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Both Grassley and Kaufmann made the case that the 2016 election isn't just about the next four years but the next 40 years, as whoever is next elected will fill the Supreme Court and replace any new vacancies.

Grassley said Clinton made clear the type of people she would select for the U.S. Supreme Court during the final presidential debate. She would select people who would represent American society.

'It's Congress' job to reflect society; it's the court's job not to worry about society. They worry about two things, the law and the facts of the case,” Grassley said. 'With a Hillary Clinton, you could easily end up with a 7-2 liberal Supreme Court.”

But Kaufmann and Grassley didn't just make the case for the top of the ticket. They stressed the importance of races across the board, particularly their desire to see the Iowa Senate turn from a majority Democrat to a majority Republican.

After the event, the local Republican office had at least three teams going out in the field and knocking on doors to make their case in the final days as the campaign winds down.