Grassley & Ernst Abandon Iowa Women to Stand with MAGA Ideology
Over the past two weeks, an unusual cluster of votes and events have provided the clearest indication yet that Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) are more committed to advancing extremist, right wing MAGA ideology than they are to standing up for Iowa women. Both make clear they have abandoned any interest in advancing moderate principles in favor of the extremist MAGA agenda, particularly with regard to women.
Grassley, at 90, began losing his edge some time ago. He seldom leads in the Senate. He’s become a “follower” there, essentially doing what his party leaders in the Senate tell him to do. The classic example, of course, is his role in the theft of a Supreme Court appointment that, under the constitution, was President Barack Obama’s to make. At the instruction of Republican US Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Grassley refused to hold Senate Judiciary Committee hearings to even consider Obama’s nominee.
Ernst, meanwhile, is trying to move up the Senate Republican leadership ladder. That gives her powerful motivation to keep more in tune with her increasingly extreme Republican Senate colleagues than with Iowans.
So it is not surprising that Grassley or Ernst might line up with extreme MAGA Republicans at this point, even if doing so is at the expense of the Iowans they are supposed to represent.
What is surprising is that a cluster of votes and events took place over a small window of time, just the past two weeks, that make so remarkably clear the extent of their commitment to extreme MAGA ideology at the expense of Iowa women, a key voting constituency in their home state.
Here’s what happened. First the votes:
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 - Vote to Guarantee Access to Contraception Nationwide: Both Grassley and Ernst voted against a federal guarantee for the right to access contraception nationally. Republicans blocked the bill from going to the full Senate for consideration on a 51-39 vote.
Republicans argued no federal guarantee is needed, claiming there is no threat to access to contraception. Which is exactly what their judicial nominees - particularly Republican Supreme Court nominees - told Americans about abortion before the MAGA dominated Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade. Once Roe v Wade was out of the picture, Republican states started outlawing or significantly restricting abortion care; and Republicans started pushing for a national abortion ban.
At the heart of reproductive freedom and the right to make ones own health and family planing decisions, lies the right to access contraception. Both Grassley and Ernst voted not to federally guarantee that right.
Please note: a majority of the Senate voted to allow the legislation guaranteeing a right to contraception to advance to the Senate floor, but Republicans - with Grassley’s and Ernst’s votes - used a Senate rule that requires 60 votes to bring the measure to the Senate floor, and blocked the majority.
Thursday, June 13, 2024 - Vote to Guarantee Access to IVF Medical Treatment. This bill would have federally protected and expanded access to fertility treatment, including in-vitro fertilization, a safe and effective medical treatment that allows families the freedom to start or grow their families even if fertility problems would otherwise prevent them from doing so.
Millions of Americans have begun families through in-vitro fertilization, but MAGA religious extremists now object to it, calling it un-natural.
Republicans - again with the votes of both Grassley and Ernst - blocked the legislation from going to the full Senate for consideration. The vote was 48-47 vote.
Again, please note: a majority of the votes cast on this issue were to allow it to go to the Senate for consideration. Senate Republicans once again used a rule that required 60 votes to bring the bill to the Senate floor for consideration, thereby blocking the. majority of votes cast for it.
Which brings us to the next item - a political event that took place, also on Thursday, June 13. This was more symbolic than the substance of the votes above, but the symbolism is powerful and troubling.
Thursday, June 13, 2024 - Trump Visits Capitol Hill: Donald Trump came to Capitol Hill on Thursday - his first visit there since sending his insurrectionists to the Capitol on January 6 to attempt to overthrow America’s democracy.
The irony of Trump’s visit to the Hill - the day before Flag Day - to meet with cheering Republicans who on January 6 feared for their lives as Trump’s insurrectionists tried to upend our democracy - was not lost on me. Why any of them showed up at all is a mystery to me.
But something else was even more significant.
Donald Trump is many things - twice impeached; a 34 times convicted felon; indicted on dozens of more felony counts; a pathological liar; a chronic grifter, etc.
But he is also this: an adjudicated rapist.
Don’t just take my word for it. Take the word of Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who presided over the E. Jean Carroll civil case in New York. He has said, specifically, that the verdict in that case - returned by an impartial jurty of Trump’s peers - was a finding that Donald Trump committed “rape” as the term is generally understood.
If Grassley and Ernst are comfortable with their party nominating someone with all the other baggage Trump carries - well, OK. It’s a free country.
I sure wouldn’t be.
But what I really can’t imagine what women in Iowa - especially those who have been sexually assaulted - must be thinking when they see the video and photographs of their senators - Grassley and Ernst - smiling, cheering and applauding an adjudicated rapist - Donald Trump - who they want to make president again, on his return to Capitol Hill.
Ernst has done good work - and Grassley has joined her - on legislation to prevent sexual assault in the military and to improve its prosecution when it occurs. Ernst has even identified herself as a sexual assault survivor herself. I don’t think, and am not suggesting, that either of them take rape lightly.
Yet, if it means joining or missing a photo op on Capitol Hill with Trump - who has been judged in a court of law by an impartial jury to be an actual rapist- both Grassley and Ernst are apparently willing to overlook that fact. It’s not a big enough problem, apparently, to chase them away from a political photo op.
If it were me, when an adjudicated rapist walks in the room, smiling and applauding would not be my response, much less elbowing my way into such proximity that I was in all the news photos that came out of the event.
Whether they thought far enough ahead to intend it or not, what they did by posing for photographs with and applauding the rapist was send a message to every Iowa women - and every man as well - that even a jury verdict that Donald Trump raped someone is something they can overlook and turn a blind eye toward in order to march in lock step with the MAGA extremists.
Just not that big of a problem. When there’s a photo op at stake. Apparently.
Talk about throwing Iowa women under the bus for one’s extreme, partisan ideology.
Of course, they’ve been doing that all along, on another level, since the “Access Hollywood” tape, as well. Remember Trump’s brag: “I just grab them by…….”
Folks, this isn’t normal. It never has been.
Iowa’s United States Senators need to stop normalizing it.
No, this is NOT normal. Our senators have been corrupted—by fear? By power? By the need to be an accepted part of the Republican group think? I don’t know. Like you, I just can’t imagine how they justify their positions, or how they sleep at night, really. I have never in my life as an Iowan, felt less represented in my government.
I’d also note here the proximity to D-Day and in general honoring the sacrifice and service of our military personnel which I still think most Iowans and most Americans display. There is a stark, glaring difference between Biden, who clearly respects them and honors them, and Trump, who can’t bother risking getting wet that whatever-that-sculpted-mess-is on top of his head and has called them “ losers.” Ernst is a veteran herself. Her service should be noted and respected. Yes, to her credit, she has voted for legislation that helps military personnel, but her obvious and cynical support of Trump should disgust anyone who honors the sacrifice and service of our military members. I’d think she has a lot of explaining to do to her fellow vets.