photo/Bloomberg
After every mass shooting, a reporter interviews friends, family and neighbors of the perpetrator who invariably say, “we didn’t see the signs.” Then upon further examination, it turns out that there were all kinds of signs, but no one put 2 and 2 together. That’s what we have going on in this political moment.
Donald Trump has us on a slippery slope to fascism with the help of the MAGA Republican party. We didn’t get here overnight. There were dozens of stand-out moments I can think of off hand and I bet you can too. In this week’s spotlight we turn to the recent example of Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, about whom Iowa didn’t see the signs.
Here are a couple of signs about what was to come with Joni. At the time I found these two ads to be laden with violent themes and just plain gross. People made fun of them but perhaps they were too weird for our brains to absorb properly making us unable to assign meaning. These two campaign ads were dubbed “Shot” and “Squeal.” Both were from the 2014 campaign during Barack Obama’s second term. Just two examples but it is obvious that we were in trouble if you look at the imagery in these ads.
I haven’t written anything yet about Ernst’s “Well, we’re all going to die” remark or her follow up video which was another even more shocking display of contempt for Iowans who, probably regretfully now, sent her to DC. My impression of the coverage and the internet convo about her comments is that even the best writers have been having a real hard time coming up with words to convey just how terribly egregious her remarks were.
It was a display of contempt toward her fellow Iowans from one of our elected officials, the likes of which we’ve never seen. In my opinion, we should be calling for her to resign. And even though the “Well, we all are going to die” video and the “tooth fairy” video have gone viral and everyone with a media outlet or podcast or social media account has been hammering on them, everything I’ve seen so far still has been an understatement of just how telling these remarks are.
That is of course, until Steve Schmidt weighed in.
For those who haven’t seen the Pro Publica article here is the link.
propublica.org/article/joni-ernst-congress-military-relationships
Two Democrats have announced their campaigns to oust Joni Ernst in 2026.
Nathan Sage https://www.sageforsenate.com/
JD Scholten https://www.scholtenforiowa.com/
