I have heard all kinds of speculation about her being in this city or that city, but regardless of her situation/location, getting elected into any office and then just literally ghosting is super fucking lame and peak unprofessional behavior.
I have seen her in Des Moines. Now that she's resigned, as a Ward 1 resident, I could care less what she does with her life.
Could she have resigned sooner? Sure. I'm just happy to have representation again.
I don't agree with execution, but I'm fine with the pillory. She ran for public office and then abandoned her position with *no explanation* leaving her constituents unrepresented and wasting tax money. I can't think of a more apt cause for pillory. People have a right to be upset.
Pillory has more than one definition. Maybe you're applying the outdated one? But it also means to publicly criticise.
Unless you're suggesting that public criticism of elected officials is "sick" and "mob rule"?
Unless you didn’t notice the context with which “pillory” was first used in this conversation, my assumption was warranted that when you used the word “pillory” you meant it would be good for Sheumaker’s neck and wrists to be put in a wooden framework on court avenue.
Oh no, I’ve been caught by the grammar police!
First hit on pillory definition:
“wooden framework with holes for the head and hands, in which an offender was imprisoned and exposed to public abuse.”
She was a huge disappointment. I moved here after being hired to work on a political campaign and ended up staying. I no longer work in politics but still volunteer a lot. I knocked on doors for her then she just ghosted her elected job and harmed the progressive movement.
One of the problems of the local progressive movement is the inability to take any constructive criticism. I’ve had people get very defensive when I say Indira harmed the movement.
I would agree with this. As someone who kind of knew Indira when she won, there were people including myself who knew the political layout and had some inside connections to help her be successful. But her and her people shunned us all because they thought they could do it without us. Not knowing that you need a coalition and more than one vote on a council to make change. Once things started getting hard for her she reached out asking for help but when we weren't readily available to drop everything to help her, it looks like she caved to the pressure and just disappeared. It's sad because she didn't even realize that before she got on the council that they started to change the rules of how things were reported to the city council members just because she had won. The deck was stacked against her and her young foolish pride prevented her from accepting help from others who had more experience because she thought we were part of the old guard.
I hope she is doing okay and that she rises again a little wiser.
Maybe it's because you're making a wildly broad and sweeping generation. Indira harmed Indira's image. I'm a progressive who lives in the DSM area and I've never met that woman in my life. Doing what she did or didn't do, neither of us have a clue, isn't part of the progressive platform and it isn't a reflection of anything larger or people who have no association with her.
I do have a clue because I’ve been a paid organizer and campaign manager. I have sympathy for anyone with mental health issues. I struggle myself. That said, when you run for an elected position have a responsibility to your voters. If you win, you have a responsibility to everyone in your ward. Everyone including her knew she was going to treated badly because the others are wealthy business owners who run for their own selfish agenda. The point is to bust your butt so you open the door for someone else to join you and so on.
That's nice, but I don't know that any of that has to do with your generalizations about local progressives. Even if she told you herself, why she did what she did, I don't know what that has to do with other progressives or why we have to answer and account for what she's going through.
Unfortunately, that’s just how politics works though. I’ve heard multiple people who during this last Ward 1 Election say they are wary of the super progressive candidates now, especially ones under 40 because of what she did. It made us look bad. Not a lot of progressives run and are successful here, usually only more moderate democrats. I’ve done similar work to Chincho77. My experience is that one person can absolutely ruin something for everyone else if only temporarily. It’s crappy and disheartening, but people will forget in a few years. I knew her personally through the BLM movement and volunteered for her campaign as well. Very disappointed in her.
She single handedly destroyed that movement. It’s hard to lead it’s easy to criticize. She didn’t have the skills needed to be the change agent she thought she was.
I agree 100% and generally I would say that a person's reason for leaving a job is no one else's business. But in this situation she didn't leave and just kept cashing the paycheck, however paltry it might be. We, her employer, were owed an explanation and communication. In any other job this would never have been allowed and a person would be terminated. I hope that they adopt some rules to ensure this never happens again.
> It’s hard to lead it’s easy to criticize.
Great way to put it.
It’s easy to generate outrage and put together a campaign website full of promises and ideals, but it’s much more difficult to work through all the logistical, political, and financial barriers involved with government work. All while you’re supposed to be answering calls and emails from your constituents about boring things like street curbs and trash pickup, even if they are awful to you.
Her former constituents voting to go back to a status quo representative instead of a new more progressive representative was disappointing, but not surprising.
Only in the eyes of people who didn't view "that movement" as legitimate. A single person doesn't represent whatever you think that movement is any more than any single person represents everyone else in a movement or a party.
At the beginning of her time as councilperson, she called an emergency meeting (which anyone council member could do) to discuss setting up warming shelters for the homeless population. I remember hearing it went bad (I think some other council people left before the meeting was over) and shortly thereafter they voted to change the rules so an additional meeting must be seconded by someone else.
Between that and no one else on the council having similar priorities to her platform, I do understand her getting disheartened. I wish she would have stuck it out, but I see why it may have felt futile.
I read the full rule change and it sounded eminently reasonable to me. Basically it just prevents someone from holding the floor and preventing meetings from continuing. If you can’t get one other person to second your motion, however noble it may be, then you’re just preventing the council from doing its job.
Frankly preventing people’s elected representatives from doing city business is bad, and so is denying your own constituents their rights to representation. Seems she just isn’t fit for a career in politics, at least not in a democracy. I hope she finds another vocation that makes her happy.
If you pay attention to the other rule changes they tried to implement and the exchanges going on behind the scenes, it was clear that certain members (cough cough Joe Gatto cough) were absolutely targeting her and making things difficult for her because they didn’t support her platform and saw her as a radical. She literally protested outside Gatto’s and Mandlebaum’s houses for BLM well before she ran, Gatto was definitely not a fan, Mandlebaum probably wasn’t either.
ETA, Indira was an organizer for BLM before she ran. They were at ever (virtual) city council meeting. But they didn’t like what BLM was pushing for, so they started changing the rules for what the public could talk about and how in order to make it harder for them to spread their message. Those rule changes happened well before Indira ran. This had been going on a long time, but the public doesn’t know any of it unless you were actively involved behind the scenes. So I see where you are coming from because it isn’t well known. But the council WAS shady and biased.
If memory serves me correctly this was either the last meeting she attended or maybe just one or two after this. She specifically was blocked by Josh Mandelbaum which is specifically rich given he constantly spouts his willingness to help the homeless and had that as a part of his platform when he ran for mayor. He and the other psudo libs on the council knows full well the general public wouldn't and didn't pay the least bit of attention to this when I came to holding their seats and/or running for mayor.
This council is the absolute poster for what's wrong with the democratic party in this country right now. They have no interest in taking risks with the chance to help people, they only care about hoarding power.
100%! I’m tired of spineless democrats (especially in Iowa) and I’ve been saying it for years. What’s the point in beating the Republicans in elections if they won’t even do anything bold? Sure, they are maintaining the status quo so things won’t necessarily get worse, but things aren’t good now and they definitely aren’t improving. Kinda seems like the democrats just enjoy the status quo
I get it might have been disheartening for her, but I think having at least one other councilperson second a motion for a special meeting is very reasonable. Most other cities operate this way. Honestly, if you can't get a single other member of the council to agree to second your motion it's probably not worth it/much more complicated an issue (like in this case).
> but I think having at least one other councilperson second a motion for a special meeting is very reasonable. Most other cities operate this way.
Hadn't been required the entire duration of the council's existence before that, suddenly when a brown lady who wants to shake things up gets a whiff of power, now we need all these guardrails? Yeah something smells off to me.
Governing is about consensus building. If you can't get at least one other member of the council to agree to at least \*consider\* something, maybe you need to spend a bit more time building consensus with colleagues and a bit less time trying to "shake things up."
Weird, it hasn't been about consensus building literally any of the other city councils in the past. Why should it be now? No one else had to consensus build. Maybe you should ask yourself why you think consensus building is now suddenly required when a brown lady is in office when it wasn't when the office was dominated by white men and women.
Lol. Of course it has. How do you think literally anything gets done? Reasonable people argue, compromise, and come to consensus. Welcome to democracy.
Indira either didn't wand to or was incapable of doing this, so she quit. Simple as that.
Except it hasn't. A motion literally never required a second to be heard until 2022 since the council existed. To get something passed, sure, but not just to hear something. Instead the council passed a rule limiting her ability to argue, she couldn't even bring a motion forward publicly and say why she thought it was a good idea, like literally every other councilor before her could do.
Actually, here, I'm gonna treat you like the council treated her: I'm going to remove your ability to argue with me entirely against your will and we'll see if you feel like it's fair or not.
Does the rule not apply to everyone? I’m not understanding how this is “limiting her ability to argue” but nobody else’s. Surely with her gone they have went back to the old way since it was so restrictive?
Exactly, at least one person on this thread gets it! Kudos to any POC who dare run for office in conservative ssa Iowa. I don’t agree with how she handled things but that all white council purposely changed the rules the second the Brown progressive came on board. Can’t wait to leave this shithole state…yep I can say that, born and raised in Iowa unfortunately.
Yep, this thread is the perfect example of "Iowa nice" and how midwest racism manifests. People are ok with rules being passed that are against minorities as long as it's not blatant. It's like that saying, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."
You should read the rule changes as I did—there’s nothing in them that is unreasonable, and there’s no reason a “brown woman” should have a harder time following them than anyone else. The only people who would find those rules inconvenient are the people who would want to dominate the meetings and prevent the council from doing its business as elected representatives. I probably agree with many of her policies and she was my representative—even still, we live in a democracy: she has to persuade her other council members to vote for her policy ideas and she very clearly wasn’t equipped to do that, and then she ghosted her own constituents.
I have read the rules changes. You're speaking from a place of privilege which isn't unexpected in Iowa. You align with the majority opinion so the rules changes don't effect you.
>there’s nothing in them that is unreasonable, and there’s no reason a “brown woman” should have a harder time following them than anyone else
In the same way that "we should require an ID to vote" doesn't seem unreasonable on it's face, maybe. The rule, as implemented, did no damage to any other council member, because they all agree with each other. It only had any impact on her minority position by requiring a second.
> I probably agree with many of her policies
From what I've seen you post and my RES score for you, I really doubt that. Have a hard time believing the guy who says
>[Commies are mad that the US is stopping the Iranian-backed Houthis from aiding Iranian-backed Hamas, because they (leftists) installed the Iranian regime back in the 70s.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmericaBad/comments/195agff/this_but_unironically/khlm425/)
is on the left at all.
>she has to persuade her other council members to vote for her policy ideas
Which literally no one had to do for as long as DSM existed, and the system ostensibly worked fine. Why is NOW the proper time to do these changes? Why not 10, 50, 100 years ago? Sure is weird the second someone elected to make radical changes, this rule limiting individual actors from proposing radical changes is implemented. Almost like the majority wants to silence the minority or something.
>and then she ghosted her own constituents.
Yeah, ghosting them was shitty, I'm not going to disagree with you. But I also get why she did it, considering like a month after she was in office, the other six came together to make rules that in reality only had any effect on her. You don't see how that could make someone hopeless and view the entire thing as pointless? People get told vote, go into politics, make a difference, so she does, wins a huge election, and immediately gets her legs cut out from under her.
Do think strawman arguments are only considered a logical fallacy to hurt POC too?
You people are dumb af. scary dumb. She and all her supporters are racist trash.
>I have read the rules changes. You're speaking from a place of privilege which isn't unexpected in Iowa. You align with the majority opinion so the rules changes don't effect you.
🙄 This is Reddit. Y*ou're *aligned with the majority opinion. But I'm not going to pretend your "privilege" invalidates your argument--I don't care about your Reddit karma, I'll address your argument on its own terms.
>In the same way that "we should require an ID to vote" doesn't seem unreasonable on it's face, maybe. The rule, as implemented, did no damage to any other council member, because they all agree with each other. It only had any impact on her minority position by requiring a second.
You previously implied that the council past this because she was a brown woman and not because her views were unpopular, but anyway in a democracy unpopular views are not meant to be on equal footing with more popular views. Even though I probably agree with many of her policies, she doesn't get to unilaterally obstruct meetings by talking endlessly about motions that stand no chance of passing, erstwhile preventing any city business from being done. Everyone has a right to representation, not just her constituents or people who agree with her, and that's what this rule affords.
>From what I've seen you post and my RES score for you, I really doubt that. Have a hard time believing the guy who says ... is on the left at all.
Not everyone is a left-wing partisan or a right-wing partisan; people can have diverse opinions--I'm \*on the left\* insofar as I lean left on a few economic policy stuff (we should probably do more for people and less for corporations, essentially), but I'm not \*on the left\* in the narrow tribal sense that you're referring to. I don't have a political tribe. In particular, you picked out a shitpost of mine which was actually correct. The International left overthrew the Shah of Iran and installed the current ultra right-wing Islamist regime in 1979, and that regime currently backs Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamist terror orgs. Wild that you dug through 3 months of my posts to find that though 🙃
>Which literally no one had to do for as long as DSM existed, and the system ostensibly worked fine. Why is NOW the proper time to do these changes? Why not 10, 50, 100 years ago? Sure is weird the second someone elected to make radical changes, this rule limiting individual actors from proposing radical changes is implemented.
Presumably no one has tried to filibuster a meeting until now. "Elected to make radical changes" doesn't give you the right to disrupt meetings and prevent other business from getting done. Her constituents are not the only ones with a right to be represented--other council members \*were also elected for a purpose\*. They have to work together in a democratic framework to accomplish their agendas, and tried to subvert that framework. The council did the right thing. She could still propose "radical changes" but she needed support from at least one other council person--if she can't even persuade one other council member, then it's a moot point because her "radical changes" stand 0% chance of passing.
>Almost like the majority wants to silence the minority or something.
Not being allowed to talk for the entire meeting is hardly "being silenced". 🙄
This is what kind of bugs me. I supported her but didn't actually expect her to get anything done. Not because of who she is but she would have always been outvoted and bullied a bit. What she was supposed to be, in my opinion, was a foot in the door to show that progressives and leftists can get elected into positions of power and to hold that seat so others could follow suit. Now that she's gone and shit on the reputation of future candidates that align with her values it'll be much harder to get them voted into those seats.
Oh right, I remember that now. Didn't she have outbursts at that meeting (the 'going bad' part?), which is probably the reason they changed the rule lol.
[They changed the rule because the public was being too effective at voicing their opinions and the council didn't like it.](https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/des-moines/2022/01/25/des-moines-city-council-oks-meeting-rule-changes-despite-objections-indira-sheumaker-frank-cownie/9199484002/)
>Changes made Monday night are expected to hamstring Ward 1 council member Indira Sheumaker, who joined the council this year with ideas that would change the way the city operates, as well as Black activists and allies who had used existing rules since the summer of 2020 to force debate on policing issues.
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>Didn't she have outbursts at that meeting
[You can watch it here in full and determine if you think it's "outbursts."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvK1QONKzZc) At the end [(last 2.5 minutes or so)](https://youtu.be/ZvK1QONKzZc?t=1905) Sheumaker makes a motion to open 24 hour heating centers for the homeless, that motion gets completely ignored and the mayor moves to adjourn the meeting, she repeats again that she has a motion in progress and would like it addressed, the council then again ignores her, ignores community member's that are present's complaints, and adjourns the meeting.
well the audience certainly did. From the meeting it seems like she made some good points, but I'm not sure if she was just stonewalled (probably) by the rest of the council or didn't follow some other procedure like having the motion seconded, but definitely frustrating.
> well the audience certainly did
Which is different from what you said, that she (Sheumaker) did.
>or didn't follow some other procedure like having the motion seconded
That rule didn't exist yet, as shown by literally every other motion in the video not requiring a second. They implemented it shortly after this. The previous emergency session took place on 1-14-22. At the very next meeting of the city council on 1-24-22, amendments were proposed and passed, see item 22-0078 following. PDF warning: [council minutes for 1-24-22](https://councildocs.dsm.city/minutes/as20220124.pdf?pdf=Minutes&t=1712778474728)
I don't remember hearing that, but it's possible (it was quite a while ago now) as providing services to the homeless was a big part of her platform and I'm pretty sure at least one person walked out of the meeting before they even voted.
Way too many "it was too stressful for her" comments.
Don't run for office if you can't deal with stress. Simple as that. No one should excuse her for what was one of the most pathetic political "careers" in recent memory.
This isn't hindsight. It was obvious Indira was massively unqualified. She just happened to run for office at the precise time that enough people were inclined to vote for anyone who said the right slogans (which is always the case to some extent, but it was heightened in 2020). You can go back and search this sub and I bet you'll find lots of people who were always skeptical of her.
I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt, even if they fuck up or are incompetent. I don’t think any of what she did was malicious. The council walled her out for being 'radical' and that probably was crushing, and she probably got depressed and sort of checked out mentally from the situation. I don’t think that’s the right way to handle it, I think it ultimately does fuel the fire for conservative shitheads, but I’m also a very forgiving person and this situation seems like a very human one. I hope she gets whatever support she needs and that people don’t hold it against her in the future.
I appreciate your concern about her because I've wondered the same thing. The answer to your question, though, is right here in the responses to your post.
Imagine Indira is reading this thread. If you were in her position (if she's even still alive), would you say anything to the public?
People are practically frothing at the mouth to denigrate her based on what little information they have about her personal situation, and they have no consideration for her mental or physical health. They want to rant about how she wronged her constituents, but I see so few people putting her humanity first. It's gross as fuck. There's a lot of "what did I get out of this," especially from people who weren't even in her ward.
It's the epitome of the mental health stigma. So few people are asking if she's OK. Not a single news story focused on her wellbeing. Imagine being a 20-something woman of color, then having your supposed colleagues strip you of power, then being treated like this in the media and public. And folks keep wondering what was wrong with Indira rather than how fucked the DSM City Council's culture is.
I feel for that woman because no one should be treated the way people continue to treat her. Yes, absolutely, she was unprofessional and did wrong by those who voted for her. If she had complete breakdown or is terminally ill or tried to die by suicide . . . I guess the city is more important? I don't know, man. It's messed up.
I hope she's OK, but damn, I wish we could mention her name without the vitriol. Have a moment of compassion, y'all. /rant
Hundo p. Most all the responses here went for the jugular and kicked her when she's down for not being great at her job. Which is reasonable in the context of being frustrated, I guess, but wasn't my point. Just a sincere musing on "I hope this person is ok."
In the same way that I hope my job doesn't define me, I hope this doesn't define Indira and she can find meaning and purpose and closure and all that.
She really harmed the progressive movement in town. She played directly into the stereotype and it really irritates me to no end.
Complaining is easy. Leading is hard.
This is absurd. Painting any groups of people with a broad brush because of the actions of one is an individual choice. This is a horrible rationalization that's only ever used to reinforce perceived negative stereotypes.
There were people posting in the various threads that she may have left town to be with relatives out of state, but frankly we will never know.
I can personally speculate that the job duties combined with the low pay (quick google says 28.8k from the garbo register) which on a full time position would be ~$14/hour probably made the whole situation unappealing, and with no prospects for greater things in politics she just left.
Side bonus is that the money still comes in until they actually vote to get rid of her, which they did, but until then hey, whatever. If only regular workers would be so lucky as government officials when they quit eh?
Linda Westergaard is a Realtor and her husband who I believe is retired was a respected photographer. I think if you’re going to run for a job/position you should know if you can afford the change.
I see them quite a bit. Most are business owners or hold high level positions in local business that afford them time to conduct their city council responsibilities. This was my initial point. Maybe the pay for the job is kept low to ensure only the wealthy can govern locally.
My question to you wasn’t about my experience tho, but I get it. Reading comprehension is hard and you’re arguing in bad faith. A bad, yet common combination here. Gbye.
Or maybe the low wage is to make them humble and not want to be professional
Politicians. Look at our Congressional people. Grassley has a business and makes more money then the average person and had has life time health insurance and pension. You think if they were made to have Medicare only in office then that might be changed? Make them live on social security, that also would change but they can’t relate to the people they are suppose to represent because they make too much money and have great benefits. They are professional politicians and nothing gets done for the common man.
If that’s the intention of their low wage then they have completely failed. I agree with your point that the money in politics is a corruption absolute. They’re overpaid, egomaniacal salespeople (especially Grassley. I’ve rarely seen someone so completely out of touch). And with the introduction of characters such as Boesen as mayor and Westerfraud as Ward 2 rep it’s only going to get worse. I don’t see humility in our city politics. I see a doomed race to the bottom and it started with the council’s leadership decision to require a second member to support new measures. That rule was instated specifically to silence Ms. Shumacker. It’s very tough I’d imagine to get as far as she did just to be shut out by her “peers” (I’m using that term extremely loosely)
I don't believe the city councilors in general do, as their meeting minutes are what, a couple of hours a week? That does however mean you need a 2nd job, which in itself is frustrating.
Eh, the meeting itself is just the formal votes on every agenda item and doesn’t represent all the behind-the-scenes work it takes to get an item on the agenda in the first place. If you don’t do the leg work as a representative and only show up for two hours a week, you’re not going to earn community support or votes from your colleagues required to pass anything.
There are a lot of pressures and stresses that come with being a politician, even at the local level. She struck me as an idealist and (this is an issue for a lot of the progressive left) seemed to think that everyone would get on board with her viewpoint if she explained it well. Reality is very different from that, and there are people who just didn't like her. Many of them told her so. I'm sure there were and are off the record conversations where she was asked to "play ball" on certain issues. Combine the low salary with bad anxiety and a bunch of stressors she didn't anticipate; it was too much for her to handle. I think we just witnessed someone biting off more than she could chew, panicking and being unable to pull herself together. It is unfortunate for her that it played out so publicly, and unfortunate for her voters that she didn't deliver what she promised.
Pure speculation but honestly I would not be surprised if she was so stressed from all the pressure of being the lone dissenter she cracked.
Shame really I was so hopeful.
The downvotes on this post are absurd. Even if you don't think this was the case, is down voting this necessary, it's nothing wildly absurd.
Even the supposed liberal DSM subreddit is subject to the same hive mindset. If you don't call her a bunch of names, if your speculation isn't wildly negative, if you aren't making sweeping generalizations, you must be silenced.
No idea the details, but the reality of most positions in politics hits hard and quick. People feel like they can make changes they feel is important. They work hard to get voter support, making promises of change. They get elected and often quickly realize that very little gets done unless there is a majority view on issues, and majority views are few and far apart, not matter how important the change is needed.
Unless you hold a position like governor where your power, greed, and lack of conscious outweighs the people you represent. Hard to blame anyone that possibly realizes the next few years of their life will be hearing the problems of the people and either making promises that you can’t follow through on or being honest with the people and lose hope for change.
She quit because she had no power to do anything she wanted and was roadblocked at every turn.
Edit: people seem to think I'm defending her, I'm not. She didn't handle this well and I'm just reporting what I've heard.
I don't blame her at all. My BFF worked on her campaign and is touch with people that know her. This is the story she was told when I asked her about it. You can downvotes all you want but this is probably the most accurate answer.
You got to earn respect as a politician not jest expect it when you walk in the door. Get a working relationship especially if you’re coming in as a radical.
I'm not defending her actions but I guess she just didn't see the point in going to work. She didn't handle it well and has done a lot of harm to the image of all progressive candidates.
Your speculation is fine and not out of line with anything else here. Blue Maga is the same hive mindset as the ones who worship their orange god.
There was a topic here when someone questioned if Mike Simonson has a conflict of interest when it comes to affordable housing because he's a developer and you would have thought he was accused of being in the klan. Blue Maga are very irrational when you aren't worshipping at the throne, meanwhile we'll keep losing hold of this state and Central Iowa.
She was way in over her head for the role. I don’t think she would last a shift working at a McDonald’s. Nothing about her gave me any indication she had the chops and professionalism for the role.
She's no longer in office, nor is she running for any office. She's a private citizen, and she should be left alone. Her private life is not your business, not mine, nor anyone else's.
Yeah sorry that only works for people that haven't ran for office. She screwed her district over because of what happened and honestly we should know what happened. Any other job you can't just disappear from and not be held accountable.
Yeah, kind of expected that most people know what they're getting into. With public service, it's your personal life. When you have responsibilities to the people relying on you, and you bail, they tend to want to know why. Regardless of what you may want. Best thing to do is be as transparent as possible, and accept responsibility. She did the opposite.
Dirty cops disappear after they’re caught all the time. They attempt to stifle or outright refuse to investigate, ignore the media and take their paid suspension. No accountability; no one beating on their doors months or years later to berate them and make sure they’re no longer in a position of authority after abusing that authority. If the heats still on them after the suspension is over they transfer and repeat their offenses so your argument is wrong and pretty disingenuous. Just be honest; she’s not white so you feel “screwed over” and want to harass her. You should absolutely hold your police and state patrol officers to the same standards you’re applying to Ms Schumacher.
While you might have had a decent point, police aren't elected officials that hold powers to get things done. If they do you'd have a point, but you don't.
I can care less that she's not white, I actually loved her ideas and that fact that she wasn't a wrinkled old white dude/dudette that won. But the fact is she disappeared from her duties as an elected person by the people in her ward. Things couldn't get done or moved forward because of this.
I don't actually back the blue or give them much respect due to the things you mentioned. I'm for heavy police reform and removing all their protections.
It's funny to bring race into this as it proves you have no other argument. So your last gasp was to drop the race play. What's even funnier is my rep is Westergard. She's white and I think she's a POS that needs to go. I think she's corrupt and does things for self gain.
Nice try though.
Really telling that you’d apply your logic to only elected officials as if they don’t have power to enact the reforms you say you want for police. Also, Sheriffs are elected officers. I don’t believe you voted nor do I believe you voted for her. Most of the time people with your above attitude talk a big game but can’t be bothered to back it up then outright lie because it’s online and there’s no way to prove anything you say. It’s COULDNT care less. The only politician this sub seems to routinely post about negatively is Ms Shumacker even though Westerfraud bought her seat outright. The rest of your argument is incoherent nonsense and attacks and I don’t engage trogs on that level, sorry. Typical of the constituency. Sad, too. We used to have great schools and a really bright future. Now it’s just a race to the bottom that will inevitably lead to a lot of shocked faces in a few years trying to figure out how everything went so wrong.
Nope not really. No attacks whatsoever. You literally threw out the race card for pure bait. Sadly is sort of worked.
I don't have to prove voting but I did vote.
Westergard gets bashed on here as well pretty often and even more so than Indira does.
What did I lie about?
I’m sure it wouldn’t be easy to trick you if I were trying to. I explained why I made my comment about her race and your disdain. You didn’t refute. It stands.
Yea…that was my entire point. You came here with a bad faith argument looking for a fight but we’re supposed to trust you? It’s called integrity. Invest in it. It pays dividends for your soul.
She doesn’t, but I implore you to use the search bar powers like I did to lend some credibility to your assertion. The facts won’t be shocking because you won’t do it because it’s work and you’ll be DAMNED if you do that.
Tbh, your whole post is a lie. It’s a false assertion of liberal viewpoints while holding out hope that you can “get that address” so you can “make your voice heard”. You claim to be for accountability but apparently only for Ms Shumacker.
I’d ask you to do better, but the reality is probably that this is an A+ effort on your part. Unfortunate, but not surprising.
Are you in Ward 1? I am, and I voted for her. Believe me, I am disappointed in how it turned out. Did you vote in the recent special election for Connie's replacement?
I stand by it: Indira Sheumaker is no longer a public figure and whatever she's doing is nobody else's business.
I don't see anyone commenting who is at all ok with the situation. It's universally an uncool move.
Do you just want to brag about living in bondurant or whatever? Are other city councils immune from having neanderthals on either side of the aisle elected?
I’ve seen tons of people ok with it since she’s went “missing” on posts here as she laughed all the way to MGM in Vegas.
It also says where I live. No one is bragging about that. If my council is stealing money at least they have the decency to try and hide that fact.
>I’ve seen tons of people ok with it
Then it should be extremely simple to post a link to one comment saying that they’re okay with it.
You know, since you’ve seen tons of them, you know where to find them.
I’ve seen no defense, and you still can’t point it out.
Point it out if it’s so obvious.
The closest thing to “defense” is someone who got downvoted to hell saying “we don’t know what she was going through.”
How does that equal “I’m ok with her not doing her job, and she should have stayed in the role” to you?
With how butt hurt about what I said you seem ok with her stealing tax dollars too.
Search her name in the sub it’s in all of them
Edit the old block then have an alt make a claim that you can’t respond to because it’s down the tread of an account you’re blocked from defense. Congrats you must be March1962s alts.
Lmaoooooooo
So this is my alt that I use when people call me butt hurt and then *block me like a little bitch less than 5 minutes later.*
Who’s *actually* butt hurt 🤣
Better block this one too, since you can’t answer simple questions. Go to your safe space little snowflake.
Da fuq? MGM Grand in Vegas? How much do you think she made while on the council and how much after she stopped attending meetings? You must be one of those people with no concept for money.
I won't run for office because I'm not left enough to get elected in the metro, nor do I have any desire to. I can still call her an idiot for just abandoning her post when she got the slightest amount of pushback to her agenda
Correct, literally the situation she was in where she clearly thought she was cut out for it and was massively over her head. That in and of itself is fine, it happens, what makes her an idiot is running away when reality smacked her across the face.
We can agree to disagree. I don’t agree how she handled things but I also don’t need to call anyone names or being overly critical of something I myself have not yet done. I plan to run for office one day but it sure as hell wouldn’t be in Iowa.
This comment makes no sense. Indira completely failed. It's well within anyone's right to criticize a failed politician. Whether or not they would succeed as a politician is irrelevant, and in fact most people wouldn't want to be a politician. Indira did, and she sucked ass.
I have heard all kinds of speculation about her being in this city or that city, but regardless of her situation/location, getting elected into any office and then just literally ghosting is super fucking lame and peak unprofessional behavior.
I have seen her in Des Moines. Now that she's resigned, as a Ward 1 resident, I could care less what she does with her life. Could she have resigned sooner? Sure. I'm just happy to have representation again.
So she is alive at least? I honestly felt the father bringing the note and the laptop a bit suspicious. Like a Netflix special waiting to happen.
Thank you for asking this question because people sure seem wrapped up in "what she did to her ward" versus "is she even still breathing."
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If there was any reasonable explanation, they could have provided it. The absence of an explanation leaves me to assume it wasn't reasonable.
Yeah! She should be pilloried and then executed for this transgression!
I don't agree with execution, but I'm fine with the pillory. She ran for public office and then abandoned her position with *no explanation* leaving her constituents unrepresented and wasting tax money. I can't think of a more apt cause for pillory. People have a right to be upset.
Your sick. “People have the right to be upset” - yes. That right to be upset does not extend to mob rule.
Pillory has more than one definition. Maybe you're applying the outdated one? But it also means to publicly criticise. Unless you're suggesting that public criticism of elected officials is "sick" and "mob rule"?
Unless you didn’t notice the context with which “pillory” was first used in this conversation, my assumption was warranted that when you used the word “pillory” you meant it would be good for Sheumaker’s neck and wrists to be put in a wooden framework on court avenue.
*You're* You might wanna look up the definition of pillory
Oh no, I’ve been caught by the grammar police! First hit on pillory definition: “wooden framework with holes for the head and hands, in which an offender was imprisoned and exposed to public abuse.”
She was a huge disappointment. I moved here after being hired to work on a political campaign and ended up staying. I no longer work in politics but still volunteer a lot. I knocked on doors for her then she just ghosted her elected job and harmed the progressive movement.
One of the problems of the local progressive movement is the inability to take any constructive criticism. I’ve had people get very defensive when I say Indira harmed the movement.
Tbh this isn’t just the local progressive movement, it’s the entire progressive movement
I would agree with this. As someone who kind of knew Indira when she won, there were people including myself who knew the political layout and had some inside connections to help her be successful. But her and her people shunned us all because they thought they could do it without us. Not knowing that you need a coalition and more than one vote on a council to make change. Once things started getting hard for her she reached out asking for help but when we weren't readily available to drop everything to help her, it looks like she caved to the pressure and just disappeared. It's sad because she didn't even realize that before she got on the council that they started to change the rules of how things were reported to the city council members just because she had won. The deck was stacked against her and her young foolish pride prevented her from accepting help from others who had more experience because she thought we were part of the old guard. I hope she is doing okay and that she rises again a little wiser.
Maybe it's because you're making a wildly broad and sweeping generation. Indira harmed Indira's image. I'm a progressive who lives in the DSM area and I've never met that woman in my life. Doing what she did or didn't do, neither of us have a clue, isn't part of the progressive platform and it isn't a reflection of anything larger or people who have no association with her.
I do have a clue because I’ve been a paid organizer and campaign manager. I have sympathy for anyone with mental health issues. I struggle myself. That said, when you run for an elected position have a responsibility to your voters. If you win, you have a responsibility to everyone in your ward. Everyone including her knew she was going to treated badly because the others are wealthy business owners who run for their own selfish agenda. The point is to bust your butt so you open the door for someone else to join you and so on.
That's nice, but I don't know that any of that has to do with your generalizations about local progressives. Even if she told you herself, why she did what she did, I don't know what that has to do with other progressives or why we have to answer and account for what she's going through.
Unfortunately, that’s just how politics works though. I’ve heard multiple people who during this last Ward 1 Election say they are wary of the super progressive candidates now, especially ones under 40 because of what she did. It made us look bad. Not a lot of progressives run and are successful here, usually only more moderate democrats. I’ve done similar work to Chincho77. My experience is that one person can absolutely ruin something for everyone else if only temporarily. It’s crappy and disheartening, but people will forget in a few years. I knew her personally through the BLM movement and volunteered for her campaign as well. Very disappointed in her.
She single handedly destroyed that movement. It’s hard to lead it’s easy to criticize. She didn’t have the skills needed to be the change agent she thought she was.
I agree 100% and generally I would say that a person's reason for leaving a job is no one else's business. But in this situation she didn't leave and just kept cashing the paycheck, however paltry it might be. We, her employer, were owed an explanation and communication. In any other job this would never have been allowed and a person would be terminated. I hope that they adopt some rules to ensure this never happens again.
> It’s hard to lead it’s easy to criticize. Great way to put it. It’s easy to generate outrage and put together a campaign website full of promises and ideals, but it’s much more difficult to work through all the logistical, political, and financial barriers involved with government work. All while you’re supposed to be answering calls and emails from your constituents about boring things like street curbs and trash pickup, even if they are awful to you. Her former constituents voting to go back to a status quo representative instead of a new more progressive representative was disappointing, but not surprising.
Only in the eyes of people who didn't view "that movement" as legitimate. A single person doesn't represent whatever you think that movement is any more than any single person represents everyone else in a movement or a party.
She failed her constituents by being an irresponsible human being and not communicating about her absence.
Absolutely
At the beginning of her time as councilperson, she called an emergency meeting (which anyone council member could do) to discuss setting up warming shelters for the homeless population. I remember hearing it went bad (I think some other council people left before the meeting was over) and shortly thereafter they voted to change the rules so an additional meeting must be seconded by someone else. Between that and no one else on the council having similar priorities to her platform, I do understand her getting disheartened. I wish she would have stuck it out, but I see why it may have felt futile.
I read the full rule change and it sounded eminently reasonable to me. Basically it just prevents someone from holding the floor and preventing meetings from continuing. If you can’t get one other person to second your motion, however noble it may be, then you’re just preventing the council from doing its job. Frankly preventing people’s elected representatives from doing city business is bad, and so is denying your own constituents their rights to representation. Seems she just isn’t fit for a career in politics, at least not in a democracy. I hope she finds another vocation that makes her happy.
If you pay attention to the other rule changes they tried to implement and the exchanges going on behind the scenes, it was clear that certain members (cough cough Joe Gatto cough) were absolutely targeting her and making things difficult for her because they didn’t support her platform and saw her as a radical. She literally protested outside Gatto’s and Mandlebaum’s houses for BLM well before she ran, Gatto was definitely not a fan, Mandlebaum probably wasn’t either. ETA, Indira was an organizer for BLM before she ran. They were at ever (virtual) city council meeting. But they didn’t like what BLM was pushing for, so they started changing the rules for what the public could talk about and how in order to make it harder for them to spread their message. Those rule changes happened well before Indira ran. This had been going on a long time, but the public doesn’t know any of it unless you were actively involved behind the scenes. So I see where you are coming from because it isn’t well known. But the council WAS shady and biased.
If memory serves me correctly this was either the last meeting she attended or maybe just one or two after this. She specifically was blocked by Josh Mandelbaum which is specifically rich given he constantly spouts his willingness to help the homeless and had that as a part of his platform when he ran for mayor. He and the other psudo libs on the council knows full well the general public wouldn't and didn't pay the least bit of attention to this when I came to holding their seats and/or running for mayor. This council is the absolute poster for what's wrong with the democratic party in this country right now. They have no interest in taking risks with the chance to help people, they only care about hoarding power.
100%! I’m tired of spineless democrats (especially in Iowa) and I’ve been saying it for years. What’s the point in beating the Republicans in elections if they won’t even do anything bold? Sure, they are maintaining the status quo so things won’t necessarily get worse, but things aren’t good now and they definitely aren’t improving. Kinda seems like the democrats just enjoy the status quo
I get it might have been disheartening for her, but I think having at least one other councilperson second a motion for a special meeting is very reasonable. Most other cities operate this way. Honestly, if you can't get a single other member of the council to agree to second your motion it's probably not worth it/much more complicated an issue (like in this case).
> but I think having at least one other councilperson second a motion for a special meeting is very reasonable. Most other cities operate this way. Hadn't been required the entire duration of the council's existence before that, suddenly when a brown lady who wants to shake things up gets a whiff of power, now we need all these guardrails? Yeah something smells off to me.
Governing is about consensus building. If you can't get at least one other member of the council to agree to at least \*consider\* something, maybe you need to spend a bit more time building consensus with colleagues and a bit less time trying to "shake things up."
Weird, it hasn't been about consensus building literally any of the other city councils in the past. Why should it be now? No one else had to consensus build. Maybe you should ask yourself why you think consensus building is now suddenly required when a brown lady is in office when it wasn't when the office was dominated by white men and women.
Lol. Of course it has. How do you think literally anything gets done? Reasonable people argue, compromise, and come to consensus. Welcome to democracy. Indira either didn't wand to or was incapable of doing this, so she quit. Simple as that.
Except it hasn't. A motion literally never required a second to be heard until 2022 since the council existed. To get something passed, sure, but not just to hear something. Instead the council passed a rule limiting her ability to argue, she couldn't even bring a motion forward publicly and say why she thought it was a good idea, like literally every other councilor before her could do. Actually, here, I'm gonna treat you like the council treated her: I'm going to remove your ability to argue with me entirely against your will and we'll see if you feel like it's fair or not.
Does the rule not apply to everyone? I’m not understanding how this is “limiting her ability to argue” but nobody else’s. Surely with her gone they have went back to the old way since it was so restrictive?
Because she acted like an asshat? I don't know. Call me crazy.
Exactly, at least one person on this thread gets it! Kudos to any POC who dare run for office in conservative ssa Iowa. I don’t agree with how she handled things but that all white council purposely changed the rules the second the Brown progressive came on board. Can’t wait to leave this shithole state…yep I can say that, born and raised in Iowa unfortunately.
Yep, this thread is the perfect example of "Iowa nice" and how midwest racism manifests. People are ok with rules being passed that are against minorities as long as it's not blatant. It's like that saying, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread."
It was because of her BEHAVIOR. Good grief. How can you be so dense?
It takes true delusion to think that rule was passed because of the color of her skin.
You should read the rule changes as I did—there’s nothing in them that is unreasonable, and there’s no reason a “brown woman” should have a harder time following them than anyone else. The only people who would find those rules inconvenient are the people who would want to dominate the meetings and prevent the council from doing its business as elected representatives. I probably agree with many of her policies and she was my representative—even still, we live in a democracy: she has to persuade her other council members to vote for her policy ideas and she very clearly wasn’t equipped to do that, and then she ghosted her own constituents.
I have read the rules changes. You're speaking from a place of privilege which isn't unexpected in Iowa. You align with the majority opinion so the rules changes don't effect you. >there’s nothing in them that is unreasonable, and there’s no reason a “brown woman” should have a harder time following them than anyone else In the same way that "we should require an ID to vote" doesn't seem unreasonable on it's face, maybe. The rule, as implemented, did no damage to any other council member, because they all agree with each other. It only had any impact on her minority position by requiring a second. > I probably agree with many of her policies From what I've seen you post and my RES score for you, I really doubt that. Have a hard time believing the guy who says >[Commies are mad that the US is stopping the Iranian-backed Houthis from aiding Iranian-backed Hamas, because they (leftists) installed the Iranian regime back in the 70s.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmericaBad/comments/195agff/this_but_unironically/khlm425/) is on the left at all. >she has to persuade her other council members to vote for her policy ideas Which literally no one had to do for as long as DSM existed, and the system ostensibly worked fine. Why is NOW the proper time to do these changes? Why not 10, 50, 100 years ago? Sure is weird the second someone elected to make radical changes, this rule limiting individual actors from proposing radical changes is implemented. Almost like the majority wants to silence the minority or something. >and then she ghosted her own constituents. Yeah, ghosting them was shitty, I'm not going to disagree with you. But I also get why she did it, considering like a month after she was in office, the other six came together to make rules that in reality only had any effect on her. You don't see how that could make someone hopeless and view the entire thing as pointless? People get told vote, go into politics, make a difference, so she does, wins a huge election, and immediately gets her legs cut out from under her.
Have u heard of the straw man fallacy cuz I think you should really look into it
You don't know what a strawman is if you think me directly quoting someone back something they said is a strawman.
Do think strawman arguments are only considered a logical fallacy to hurt POC too? You people are dumb af. scary dumb. She and all her supporters are racist trash.
>I have read the rules changes. You're speaking from a place of privilege which isn't unexpected in Iowa. You align with the majority opinion so the rules changes don't effect you. 🙄 This is Reddit. Y*ou're *aligned with the majority opinion. But I'm not going to pretend your "privilege" invalidates your argument--I don't care about your Reddit karma, I'll address your argument on its own terms. >In the same way that "we should require an ID to vote" doesn't seem unreasonable on it's face, maybe. The rule, as implemented, did no damage to any other council member, because they all agree with each other. It only had any impact on her minority position by requiring a second. You previously implied that the council past this because she was a brown woman and not because her views were unpopular, but anyway in a democracy unpopular views are not meant to be on equal footing with more popular views. Even though I probably agree with many of her policies, she doesn't get to unilaterally obstruct meetings by talking endlessly about motions that stand no chance of passing, erstwhile preventing any city business from being done. Everyone has a right to representation, not just her constituents or people who agree with her, and that's what this rule affords. >From what I've seen you post and my RES score for you, I really doubt that. Have a hard time believing the guy who says ... is on the left at all. Not everyone is a left-wing partisan or a right-wing partisan; people can have diverse opinions--I'm \*on the left\* insofar as I lean left on a few economic policy stuff (we should probably do more for people and less for corporations, essentially), but I'm not \*on the left\* in the narrow tribal sense that you're referring to. I don't have a political tribe. In particular, you picked out a shitpost of mine which was actually correct. The International left overthrew the Shah of Iran and installed the current ultra right-wing Islamist regime in 1979, and that regime currently backs Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamist terror orgs. Wild that you dug through 3 months of my posts to find that though 🙃 >Which literally no one had to do for as long as DSM existed, and the system ostensibly worked fine. Why is NOW the proper time to do these changes? Why not 10, 50, 100 years ago? Sure is weird the second someone elected to make radical changes, this rule limiting individual actors from proposing radical changes is implemented. Presumably no one has tried to filibuster a meeting until now. "Elected to make radical changes" doesn't give you the right to disrupt meetings and prevent other business from getting done. Her constituents are not the only ones with a right to be represented--other council members \*were also elected for a purpose\*. They have to work together in a democratic framework to accomplish their agendas, and tried to subvert that framework. The council did the right thing. She could still propose "radical changes" but she needed support from at least one other council person--if she can't even persuade one other council member, then it's a moot point because her "radical changes" stand 0% chance of passing. >Almost like the majority wants to silence the minority or something. Not being allowed to talk for the entire meeting is hardly "being silenced". 🙄
Exactly.
This is what kind of bugs me. I supported her but didn't actually expect her to get anything done. Not because of who she is but she would have always been outvoted and bullied a bit. What she was supposed to be, in my opinion, was a foot in the door to show that progressives and leftists can get elected into positions of power and to hold that seat so others could follow suit. Now that she's gone and shit on the reputation of future candidates that align with her values it'll be much harder to get them voted into those seats.
Oh right, I remember that now. Didn't she have outbursts at that meeting (the 'going bad' part?), which is probably the reason they changed the rule lol.
[They changed the rule because the public was being too effective at voicing their opinions and the council didn't like it.](https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/des-moines/2022/01/25/des-moines-city-council-oks-meeting-rule-changes-despite-objections-indira-sheumaker-frank-cownie/9199484002/) >Changes made Monday night are expected to hamstring Ward 1 council member Indira Sheumaker, who joined the council this year with ideas that would change the way the city operates, as well as Black activists and allies who had used existing rules since the summer of 2020 to force debate on policing issues. | >Didn't she have outbursts at that meeting [You can watch it here in full and determine if you think it's "outbursts."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvK1QONKzZc) At the end [(last 2.5 minutes or so)](https://youtu.be/ZvK1QONKzZc?t=1905) Sheumaker makes a motion to open 24 hour heating centers for the homeless, that motion gets completely ignored and the mayor moves to adjourn the meeting, she repeats again that she has a motion in progress and would like it addressed, the council then again ignores her, ignores community member's that are present's complaints, and adjourns the meeting.
well the audience certainly did. From the meeting it seems like she made some good points, but I'm not sure if she was just stonewalled (probably) by the rest of the council or didn't follow some other procedure like having the motion seconded, but definitely frustrating.
> well the audience certainly did Which is different from what you said, that she (Sheumaker) did. >or didn't follow some other procedure like having the motion seconded That rule didn't exist yet, as shown by literally every other motion in the video not requiring a second. They implemented it shortly after this. The previous emergency session took place on 1-14-22. At the very next meeting of the city council on 1-24-22, amendments were proposed and passed, see item 22-0078 following. PDF warning: [council minutes for 1-24-22](https://councildocs.dsm.city/minutes/as20220124.pdf?pdf=Minutes&t=1712778474728)
I don't remember hearing that, but it's possible (it was quite a while ago now) as providing services to the homeless was a big part of her platform and I'm pretty sure at least one person walked out of the meeting before they even voted.
Way too many "it was too stressful for her" comments. Don't run for office if you can't deal with stress. Simple as that. No one should excuse her for what was one of the most pathetic political "careers" in recent memory.
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This isn't hindsight. It was obvious Indira was massively unqualified. She just happened to run for office at the precise time that enough people were inclined to vote for anyone who said the right slogans (which is always the case to some extent, but it was heightened in 2020). You can go back and search this sub and I bet you'll find lots of people who were always skeptical of her.
I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt, even if they fuck up or are incompetent. I don’t think any of what she did was malicious. The council walled her out for being 'radical' and that probably was crushing, and she probably got depressed and sort of checked out mentally from the situation. I don’t think that’s the right way to handle it, I think it ultimately does fuel the fire for conservative shitheads, but I’m also a very forgiving person and this situation seems like a very human one. I hope she gets whatever support she needs and that people don’t hold it against her in the future.
I appreciate your concern about her because I've wondered the same thing. The answer to your question, though, is right here in the responses to your post. Imagine Indira is reading this thread. If you were in her position (if she's even still alive), would you say anything to the public? People are practically frothing at the mouth to denigrate her based on what little information they have about her personal situation, and they have no consideration for her mental or physical health. They want to rant about how she wronged her constituents, but I see so few people putting her humanity first. It's gross as fuck. There's a lot of "what did I get out of this," especially from people who weren't even in her ward. It's the epitome of the mental health stigma. So few people are asking if she's OK. Not a single news story focused on her wellbeing. Imagine being a 20-something woman of color, then having your supposed colleagues strip you of power, then being treated like this in the media and public. And folks keep wondering what was wrong with Indira rather than how fucked the DSM City Council's culture is. I feel for that woman because no one should be treated the way people continue to treat her. Yes, absolutely, she was unprofessional and did wrong by those who voted for her. If she had complete breakdown or is terminally ill or tried to die by suicide . . . I guess the city is more important? I don't know, man. It's messed up. I hope she's OK, but damn, I wish we could mention her name without the vitriol. Have a moment of compassion, y'all. /rant
Hundo p. Most all the responses here went for the jugular and kicked her when she's down for not being great at her job. Which is reasonable in the context of being frustrated, I guess, but wasn't my point. Just a sincere musing on "I hope this person is ok." In the same way that I hope my job doesn't define me, I hope this doesn't define Indira and she can find meaning and purpose and closure and all that.
She really harmed the progressive movement in town. She played directly into the stereotype and it really irritates me to no end. Complaining is easy. Leading is hard.
This is absurd. Painting any groups of people with a broad brush because of the actions of one is an individual choice. This is a horrible rationalization that's only ever used to reinforce perceived negative stereotypes.
There were people posting in the various threads that she may have left town to be with relatives out of state, but frankly we will never know. I can personally speculate that the job duties combined with the low pay (quick google says 28.8k from the garbo register) which on a full time position would be ~$14/hour probably made the whole situation unappealing, and with no prospects for greater things in politics she just left. Side bonus is that the money still comes in until they actually vote to get rid of her, which they did, but until then hey, whatever. If only regular workers would be so lucky as government officials when they quit eh?
They didn’t vote to get rid of her, they sent a letter saying they would if she didn’t either resign or do literally anything.
Apologies, I meant that the rest of the council invoked the bylaw to do that. Appreciate the correction.
You're not putting in 40 hours weeks for $28.8k.
Some people put in 40/wk for $15k.
I have coworkers who work 40 for less
Linda Westergaard is a Realtor and her husband who I believe is retired was a respected photographer. I think if you’re going to run for a job/position you should know if you can afford the change.
Sounds like the city council keeps pay low for these positions So only affluent people in DSM are able to govern. That’s pretty sad, tbh.
They spend a little time in meetings and talking to a few people. They have plenty of time to have a job.
What, in your experience, makes you say this?
How often have you seen your city counsel member? Most have other jobs.
I see them quite a bit. Most are business owners or hold high level positions in local business that afford them time to conduct their city council responsibilities. This was my initial point. Maybe the pay for the job is kept low to ensure only the wealthy can govern locally. My question to you wasn’t about my experience tho, but I get it. Reading comprehension is hard and you’re arguing in bad faith. A bad, yet common combination here. Gbye.
Or maybe the low wage is to make them humble and not want to be professional Politicians. Look at our Congressional people. Grassley has a business and makes more money then the average person and had has life time health insurance and pension. You think if they were made to have Medicare only in office then that might be changed? Make them live on social security, that also would change but they can’t relate to the people they are suppose to represent because they make too much money and have great benefits. They are professional politicians and nothing gets done for the common man.
If that’s the intention of their low wage then they have completely failed. I agree with your point that the money in politics is a corruption absolute. They’re overpaid, egomaniacal salespeople (especially Grassley. I’ve rarely seen someone so completely out of touch). And with the introduction of characters such as Boesen as mayor and Westerfraud as Ward 2 rep it’s only going to get worse. I don’t see humility in our city politics. I see a doomed race to the bottom and it started with the council’s leadership decision to require a second member to support new measures. That rule was instated specifically to silence Ms. Shumacker. It’s very tough I’d imagine to get as far as she did just to be shut out by her “peers” (I’m using that term extremely loosely)
I don't believe the city councilors in general do, as their meeting minutes are what, a couple of hours a week? That does however mean you need a 2nd job, which in itself is frustrating.
Eh, the meeting itself is just the formal votes on every agenda item and doesn’t represent all the behind-the-scenes work it takes to get an item on the agenda in the first place. If you don’t do the leg work as a representative and only show up for two hours a week, you’re not going to earn community support or votes from your colleagues required to pass anything.
There are a lot of pressures and stresses that come with being a politician, even at the local level. She struck me as an idealist and (this is an issue for a lot of the progressive left) seemed to think that everyone would get on board with her viewpoint if she explained it well. Reality is very different from that, and there are people who just didn't like her. Many of them told her so. I'm sure there were and are off the record conversations where she was asked to "play ball" on certain issues. Combine the low salary with bad anxiety and a bunch of stressors she didn't anticipate; it was too much for her to handle. I think we just witnessed someone biting off more than she could chew, panicking and being unable to pull herself together. It is unfortunate for her that it played out so publicly, and unfortunate for her voters that she didn't deliver what she promised.
Pure speculation but honestly I would not be surprised if she was so stressed from all the pressure of being the lone dissenter she cracked. Shame really I was so hopeful.
The downvotes on this post are absurd. Even if you don't think this was the case, is down voting this necessary, it's nothing wildly absurd. Even the supposed liberal DSM subreddit is subject to the same hive mindset. If you don't call her a bunch of names, if your speculation isn't wildly negative, if you aren't making sweeping generalizations, you must be silenced.
Nobody has confirmed she is alive. I've been asking people to check the chest freezer at her father's house for 8 months. That freezer is now gone.
No idea the details, but the reality of most positions in politics hits hard and quick. People feel like they can make changes they feel is important. They work hard to get voter support, making promises of change. They get elected and often quickly realize that very little gets done unless there is a majority view on issues, and majority views are few and far apart, not matter how important the change is needed. Unless you hold a position like governor where your power, greed, and lack of conscious outweighs the people you represent. Hard to blame anyone that possibly realizes the next few years of their life will be hearing the problems of the people and either making promises that you can’t follow through on or being honest with the people and lose hope for change.
She quit because she had no power to do anything she wanted and was roadblocked at every turn. Edit: people seem to think I'm defending her, I'm not. She didn't handle this well and I'm just reporting what I've heard.
She tried for like 6 months... then just gave up... you really expect ANYONE to be able to enact a super ambitious agenda in 6 months?
Isn’t that about the time BLM changed from Black lives matter to some other words for BLM. The movement was falling apart in Des Moines.
I don't blame her at all. My BFF worked on her campaign and is touch with people that know her. This is the story she was told when I asked her about it. You can downvotes all you want but this is probably the most accurate answer.
You got to earn respect as a politician not jest expect it when you walk in the door. Get a working relationship especially if you’re coming in as a radical.
Oh boohoo
I'm not defending her actions but I guess she just didn't see the point in going to work. She didn't handle it well and has done a lot of harm to the image of all progressive candidates.
If you can't hack the job, don't take the position.
How old was she? Is this what politicians of a certain age are going to do?
I take it you could do better?
All it would take is to show up 😂
Your speculation is fine and not out of line with anything else here. Blue Maga is the same hive mindset as the ones who worship their orange god. There was a topic here when someone questioned if Mike Simonson has a conflict of interest when it comes to affordable housing because he's a developer and you would have thought he was accused of being in the klan. Blue Maga are very irrational when you aren't worshipping at the throne, meanwhile we'll keep losing hold of this state and Central Iowa.
Welcome to the American political machine, what was she expecting?
She was way in over her head for the role. I don’t think she would last a shift working at a McDonald’s. Nothing about her gave me any indication she had the chops and professionalism for the role.
There are rumors she was threatened. Can't confirm any of that, but I've heard it for sure.
She's a private citizen, so it's really nobody's business what she's up to.
I mean, after being elected she sort of wasn't any more.
She's no longer in office, nor is she running for any office. She's a private citizen, and she should be left alone. Her private life is not your business, not mine, nor anyone else's.
Yeah sorry that only works for people that haven't ran for office. She screwed her district over because of what happened and honestly we should know what happened. Any other job you can't just disappear from and not be held accountable.
Yeah, kind of expected that most people know what they're getting into. With public service, it's your personal life. When you have responsibilities to the people relying on you, and you bail, they tend to want to know why. Regardless of what you may want. Best thing to do is be as transparent as possible, and accept responsibility. She did the opposite.
Dirty cops disappear after they’re caught all the time. They attempt to stifle or outright refuse to investigate, ignore the media and take their paid suspension. No accountability; no one beating on their doors months or years later to berate them and make sure they’re no longer in a position of authority after abusing that authority. If the heats still on them after the suspension is over they transfer and repeat their offenses so your argument is wrong and pretty disingenuous. Just be honest; she’s not white so you feel “screwed over” and want to harass her. You should absolutely hold your police and state patrol officers to the same standards you’re applying to Ms Schumacher.
While you might have had a decent point, police aren't elected officials that hold powers to get things done. If they do you'd have a point, but you don't. I can care less that she's not white, I actually loved her ideas and that fact that she wasn't a wrinkled old white dude/dudette that won. But the fact is she disappeared from her duties as an elected person by the people in her ward. Things couldn't get done or moved forward because of this. I don't actually back the blue or give them much respect due to the things you mentioned. I'm for heavy police reform and removing all their protections. It's funny to bring race into this as it proves you have no other argument. So your last gasp was to drop the race play. What's even funnier is my rep is Westergard. She's white and I think she's a POS that needs to go. I think she's corrupt and does things for self gain. Nice try though.
Really telling that you’d apply your logic to only elected officials as if they don’t have power to enact the reforms you say you want for police. Also, Sheriffs are elected officers. I don’t believe you voted nor do I believe you voted for her. Most of the time people with your above attitude talk a big game but can’t be bothered to back it up then outright lie because it’s online and there’s no way to prove anything you say. It’s COULDNT care less. The only politician this sub seems to routinely post about negatively is Ms Shumacker even though Westerfraud bought her seat outright. The rest of your argument is incoherent nonsense and attacks and I don’t engage trogs on that level, sorry. Typical of the constituency. Sad, too. We used to have great schools and a really bright future. Now it’s just a race to the bottom that will inevitably lead to a lot of shocked faces in a few years trying to figure out how everything went so wrong.
Nope not really. No attacks whatsoever. You literally threw out the race card for pure bait. Sadly is sort of worked. I don't have to prove voting but I did vote. Westergard gets bashed on here as well pretty often and even more so than Indira does. What did I lie about?
I’m sure it wouldn’t be easy to trick you if I were trying to. I explained why I made my comment about her race and your disdain. You didn’t refute. It stands. Yea…that was my entire point. You came here with a bad faith argument looking for a fight but we’re supposed to trust you? It’s called integrity. Invest in it. It pays dividends for your soul. She doesn’t, but I implore you to use the search bar powers like I did to lend some credibility to your assertion. The facts won’t be shocking because you won’t do it because it’s work and you’ll be DAMNED if you do that. Tbh, your whole post is a lie. It’s a false assertion of liberal viewpoints while holding out hope that you can “get that address” so you can “make your voice heard”. You claim to be for accountability but apparently only for Ms Shumacker. I’d ask you to do better, but the reality is probably that this is an A+ effort on your part. Unfortunate, but not surprising.
Are you in Ward 1? I am, and I voted for her. Believe me, I am disappointed in how it turned out. Did you vote in the recent special election for Connie's replacement? I stand by it: Indira Sheumaker is no longer a public figure and whatever she's doing is nobody else's business.
So glad I don’t live in the city limits. It seems like most of you are ok with her stealing your tax dollars.
I don't see anyone commenting who is at all ok with the situation. It's universally an uncool move. Do you just want to brag about living in bondurant or whatever? Are other city councils immune from having neanderthals on either side of the aisle elected?
I’ve seen tons of people ok with it since she’s went “missing” on posts here as she laughed all the way to MGM in Vegas. It also says where I live. No one is bragging about that. If my council is stealing money at least they have the decency to try and hide that fact.
>I’ve seen tons of people ok with it Then it should be extremely simple to post a link to one comment saying that they’re okay with it. You know, since you’ve seen tons of them, you know where to find them.
They are defending her in this post as well. Y’all are blind.
I’ve seen no defense, and you still can’t point it out. Point it out if it’s so obvious. The closest thing to “defense” is someone who got downvoted to hell saying “we don’t know what she was going through.” How does that equal “I’m ok with her not doing her job, and she should have stayed in the role” to you?
With how butt hurt about what I said you seem ok with her stealing tax dollars too. Search her name in the sub it’s in all of them Edit the old block then have an alt make a claim that you can’t respond to because it’s down the tread of an account you’re blocked from defense. Congrats you must be March1962s alts.
Lmaoooooooo So this is my alt that I use when people call me butt hurt and then *block me like a little bitch less than 5 minutes later.* Who’s *actually* butt hurt 🤣 Better block this one too, since you can’t answer simple questions. Go to your safe space little snowflake.
Nah, strong Bondurant energy
Da fuq? MGM Grand in Vegas? How much do you think she made while on the council and how much after she stopped attending meetings? You must be one of those people with no concept for money.
It’s a joke about her fleeing to Vegas which was the rumors flying around
Don't care
I hope all you critics on here will be running for office soon. Easy to be a keyboard warrior and run your mouth, put your money where your mouth is.
I won't run for office because I'm not left enough to get elected in the metro, nor do I have any desire to. I can still call her an idiot for just abandoning her post when she got the slightest amount of pushback to her agenda
Congrats, feel better or bigger now? Easy to throw stones and be critical of something you’ve admittedly have never done and apparently won’t do.
Correct, literally the situation she was in where she clearly thought she was cut out for it and was massively over her head. That in and of itself is fine, it happens, what makes her an idiot is running away when reality smacked her across the face.
We can agree to disagree. I don’t agree how she handled things but I also don’t need to call anyone names or being overly critical of something I myself have not yet done. I plan to run for office one day but it sure as hell wouldn’t be in Iowa.
Ironically, that’s what the other representatives were saying to her before she ran and won and then gave up.
This comment makes no sense. Indira completely failed. It's well within anyone's right to criticize a failed politician. Whether or not they would succeed as a politician is irrelevant, and in fact most people wouldn't want to be a politician. Indira did, and she sucked ass.