March 29, 2024

Parades are politics to Kelley

Aaron Gunsaulus
Newton

Rep. Dan Kelley’s recent comments about parades are fascinating. First of all, according to his private Facebook rant, parades are important means of showing party unity during the caucus season. He even leads off that post with the observation that all the Democratic Presidential candidates were represented at the Jasper County Fair parade. Clearly, to Dan Kelley, parades are politics.

He changes his tune, however, in his public comments to the Newton Daily News, where he says that he wouldn’t miss a parade, because they’re a great way to get out and meet people, and to show community spirit and pride. First of all … meet people? How many people can you reasonably hope to meet at a parade when you’re always riding down the middle of the road atop a shiny, red convertible? Maybe Dan should try walking the parade route once in a while if he really wants to meet his constituents. Second, his Facebook post shows that this really has nothing to do with community spirit and pride. It’s simply politics.

I applaud Doug Bishop for his support of our veterans, and for walking with them in parades. I applaud Sen. Allen for choosing his daughter and her NHS Pacesetters event over the county fair parade. I applaud Dennis Parrott for taking the low-profile position of manning the party booth while others participated in the parade. The fact is, the Democratic Party, and Jasper County would be better off with more men like these in elected office.

Dan says it’s time for the party chair to take action. I agree. And his first step should be finding a primary challenger for the office currently held by Dan Kelley.