Bill Bumgarner is a retired former health care executive from northwest Iowa who worked
in hospital management for 41 years, mostly in the state of Iowa.

Sometime back in the 1990s I watched an interview with George Wallace, the four-term former governor of Alabama and a four-time presidential candidate.

He was in his mid-seventies at the time. In physical decline, Wallace was wracked with Parkinsons and the ongoing effects of an assassination attempt in 1972 that forced him to use a wheel chair for the last 26 years of his life.

Yet the pain that was most pronounced in that interview was his sincere regret related to his prominent role as a leading segregationist of the 1960s. Wallace was the man who stood in the “schoolhouse door” in 1963 to unsuccessfully try to prevent the admission of two Black students to the University of Alabama.

His most infamous statement, coming during his inaugural address after being elected governor for the first time in 1962, was: “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this Earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Standing five foot seven, Wallace was a banty rooster of a man. He strode confidently, was an engaging speaker and could gin-up audiences—primarily disaffected white voters—with a populist, anti-federal government message. It’s accurate to say Wallace and his presidential campaigns were forerunners to Donald Trump and MAGA.  

In some ways Wallace’s career also serves as a template of sorts for today’s elected MAGA Republicans, to include Iowa’s congressional delegation as well as many serving in the Iowa legislature and the Reynolds administration. He freely surrendered his values to seek political aspirations and relevancy.  

Early in his career, while serving as a circuit judge and in the state legislature, Wallace was considered a moderate for his day on both economic and racial issues—even speaking out in opposition to the Klu Klux Klan. He was also ambitious, setting his sights on a run for the governor’s chair.

In the 1958 Democratic primary for governor, Alabama’s incumbent attorney general, an open segregationist, defeated Wallace. Afterwards, using a vile epithet for Black citizens, Wallace made it clear to an aide that he would never again allow tolerance for African American civil rights cost him votes in a future election.

Wallace later commented about his shift in political strategy, saying: “You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about n******, and they stomped the floor.” While MAGA elected officials are typically more nuanced and subtle in their public comments, their actions openly support or silently affirm Trump’s executive orders and legislative priorities.

The measures tear at the fabric of fairness and decency, extending beyond what Wallace sought to achieve or even contemplate.

Today under Trump, American citizens and people residing in the U.S. legally—predominantly people of color—are being arrested by masked ICE agents and confined in reportedly harsh prison conditions with no due process. 

Medicaid health coverage will be stripped away from millions of elderly, disabled and poor Americans over the next two years. Some in the middle class will be priced out of the Affordable Care Act insurance market. Women’s health care rights have also been diminished in Iowa and other red states across the country.

Government services are being carelessly eroded through the abrupt and widespread firing of federal workers. The missions of the State Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Education, the National Weather Service, the National Park Service and others have been intentionally undermined.

Extreme tariffs on foreign goods, that have no basis in sound economic policy, are being levied recklessly without traditional congressional oversight. Based on current trends, the tariffs will increasingly result in higher prices for Americans later this year and slow overall economic growth.

Health care research grants are being gutted and will surely slow the pace of medical breakthroughs that can save and enhance lives. Public health protections are being weakened, increasing the risk for influenza, measles, COVID-19, polio and other illnesses. 

Unqualified Trump sidekicks—such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. and others—have been confirmed to positions of critical responsibility. Over time their inadequacies on many levels will negatively impact the efficacy of the nation’s national defense, homeland security, justice and health systems.

Foreign countries, businesses, and private universities are essentially being shook down by the President of the United States to maintain government funding or access. Trump’s motive appears to be retribution or perceived political incorrectness. Self-dealing business initiatives by the president and his family have long gone unchecked by the Republican congressional majority.

Millions of people—including many children—will likely die in the decades ahead due to the dismantling of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Both Democrat and Republican administrations supported USAID for decades. This misguided policy decision will also result in ceding crucial influence in the regions served to other countries, including some that are enemies of the United States.   

Career government lawyers are resigning in protest over the strident partisan management of the justice department. Bondi, other MAGA justice officials, and some Republicans in Congress are openly seeking to cover-up the full breadth of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking scandal.

Many of the aforementioned actions are of questionable legal authority and clearly outside the norms of government activity in our lifetimes. It remains to be seen if the Trump administration will widely ignore court orders contesting such actions as they are adjudicated.

Of course, the Republican majority in Congress—including the Iowa delegation—could end the madness and return government discourse to some semblance of regular order. 

In another era, Congress would boldly assert its legitimacy and authority as a co-equal branch of government. The open corruption and the purposeful deterioration of government services might well have resulted in bipartisan calls for articles of impeachment.

If Iowa Republican elected officials do not change course and oppose the most appalling actions being perpetrated by the Trump administration, a time will come when they’ll reside in the same purgatory George Wallace endured. They will live out their lives having chosen the wrong side of history.

They will come to learn that some things just don’t wash off. Their votes to coldly widen the gap of economic inequality and their craven silence in the face of cruelty, negligence, and corruption will forever be their shameful legacy.

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Top image is by H M Thompson, available via Shutterstock.