Joni Ernst Says She's Independent Then Recites Tea Party Talking Points on Every Issue

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During a debate with her Democratic opponent, Bruce Braley, Joni Ernst told the audience she is an independent leader, then recited Tea Party talking points on everything from “personhood” amendments to privatizing Social Security.

Ernst got a free ride from the mainstream media who were all enamored with her ad that basically said she is qualified to be a Senator because she knows how to castrate a pig. This was intended to be a play on the ability to “cut pork” in D.C. It was also intended to tell Iowa’s farmers that someone just like them is running for the Senate. Never mind the irony that’s lost on the fact that her puppet masters, the Koch Brothers, love the pork subsidies that have gone their way for years. Never mind that the Koch Brothers envisage limiting participation in the political process to rich white men who practice revisionist “Christianity” and maybe their stepford wives.

In the name of creating their ideal plutocracy, the Koch brothers’ useful idiots in the Republican Party dutifully gerrymander the House of Representatives to assure absolute control – even when they are rejected by the majority of voters. Now they are focused on grabbing control of the Senate.

Republicans can’t win on their ideas and since gerrymandering won’t help them in Senate races, they rely heavily on propaganda to sway the gullible and and vote suppression to disenfranchise people who see through the Christo-fascism espoused by the Tea Party and lip synced by “moderate” Republicans.

Most Americans recognize that incremental efforts to disenfranchise voters who are not rich, white, “Christian” and male means every freedom we have in the U.S. constitution is in danger.

No one would voluntarily sign up to be mere pawns in a society where a select few men have freedom while everyone else is merely a means to the ends of those select few men.

That’s why candidates like Joni Ernst focus people’s attention on entertaining commercials and limit their communications, be it in speeches, town halls or political debates to demonizing their opponents.

However, Ernst also has a special role to play as the token woman in the Koch brothers’ stable of fascist marionettes. To paraphrase Renee Elmers, Ernst can talk at woman “on their level” about the “merits” of designating our bodies as property owned by the corporate elite, regulated by their marionette government.

During an hour-long debate with Democratic Candidate Bruce Braley Sunday night, Ernst tried to divert from the fact that she was bought, paid for and indoctrinated by the Koch Brother controlled Tea Party with her suggestion that donations from Tom Breyers is exactly the same thing. The similarity only lies in the fact that Breyers is also a rich political donor. Tom Breyers’ is using his money to influence environmental policy in a manner that preserves the planet, oh and breathing. The Koch brothers want to dictate all areas of policy, exclude most of America from participation in electing lawmakers and buy judges who will bend the constitution to conform to the Koch Brother’s desired interpretation of it.

“When Ernst said she will fight for the renewable fuel standard, Braley interjected: “I’m not sure that’s what Sen. Ernst told the Koch brothers when she went to their secret meetings.” \

“You’re not running against these other people; you’re running against me,” Ernst shot back. “I am an independent leader”

Yes, Ernst is an independent leader if you believe that entails reciting talking points and policies as dictated a puppet masters.

During the debate on climate change, Ernst made a point of telling people she knows all about environmental policy because she drives a hybrid and she recycles. She also wants to get rid of the EPA because it passed really bad regulations, even if she can’t name one. Ernst sounds like a Palin clone when it comes to questions that involve expressing her own views on areas she should have some opinions about if she’s going to be a lawmaker.

During the debate, Ernst was pressed to defend “several positions she staked out on her way to winning the Republican primary in June, such as supporting a Personhood amendment, being open to privatizing Social Security, opposing a federal minimum wage, hoping to eventually phase out ethanol subsidies, and wanting to eliminate the Department of Education.”

In reality, this forced Ernst to show that she is not an “independent leader.” She recites her lines and does as she’s told just like everyone else in the Tea Party. Nothing exemplifies that more than Ernst’s position on “personhood.” A video by the DSCC provides a condensed explanation of Ernst’s very extreme views on “personhood.”

As a state senator, Ernst fought for the inclusion of one of the most extreme versions of a personhood amendment to the state’s constitution. Ernst tried to revise history during the debate on Sunday night, as noted by Politico.

The amendment that is being referenced by the congressman would not do any of the things that you stated it would do. That amendment is simply a statement that I support life.” She added that she supports “a woman’s right to contraception.

Crooks and Liars explains the plain meaning of the personhood Amendment (which has exactly the same language the version in North Dakota) that Ernst sponsored very clearly.

The language of the amendment states that life begins at conception, and if allowed to stand, would effectively ban forms of birth control that stop implantation, not to mention abortion. There are no exceptions to this. No rape exception and certainly no incest exception.

The very nature of personhood amendments means that common forms of birth control are banned. One need only read the Hobby Lobby ruling to see how the belief that life begins at conception results in a ban on certain kinds of birth control It will ban abortion under all circumstances – including rape, incest and even when the mother’s life is in danger.

When Ernst spoken on the amendment as a state Senator, she said that doctors who perform abortions should be punished. You can see it for yourself in this video by Bruce Braley’s campaign.