Rural Iowa journalist opines that Biden and the Democrats have done much for rural America and should say so

President Biden's name is mud in much of rural America, but he has done more for such places in two years than former President Trump did in four, writes one journalist in rural Iowa. "The rural economy is stronger, wages are higher and infrastructure projects are popping up all over," Iowa radio news director Robert Leonard writes in The New York Times. "Biden and his fellow Democrats are responsible for many of the improvements and for bringing back a sense of stability. For the midterms, they should run on these successes — the American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure bill. And they should run on why they have worked: Democrats should run on Democratic values."

The recent infrastructure bill made a point of directing funding to rural areas, and it's "so obviously beneficial to the communities that even Republicans who voted against it are taking credit," Leonard writes. He lists other things the administration has done (or undone) to help rural areas, such as promoting competition among meatpackers.

But all that seems unlikely to generate enough goodwill to help Democrats this fall. "When it comes to the midterms, the problem is not really about Mr. Biden himself but about long-running trends, and the only way to alter those trends is to change the perception of Democrats on the national level," Leonard writes. "Too often, Democrats leave it to Republicans to set the agenda and frame issues, or blame conservative media."

Instead, he writes, "Democrats should be proud of what the party has been and is — the party of Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare, of greater opportunity for more and more Americans — and what it is and what it stands for, and their values: for smart government being part of the solution, not the problem; for health care as a right, not a privilege; for clean water and air and effective climate solutions; for taxation that doesn’t favor the rich; for equal opportunity for all; for life chances and opportunities that aren’t determined by one’s ZIP code, race, gender, faith, sexual orientation or gender identity. These are Democratic values. They can play everywhere, including in rural America. Run on those."

Leonard is news director of KNIA and KRLS, serving Knoxville, Pella and Indianola, and author of Deep Midwest: Midwestern Explorations.