What Do Joni Ernst's Senate Win and Support for Embryo "Personhood" Really Tell Us?

[marmar]

What Do Joni Ernst's Senate Win and Support for Embryo "Personhood" Really Tell Us?

Thursday, 13 November 2014 00:00
By Katie Klabusich, Truthout | News Analysis

Stop saying Joni Ernst won because she ran from her personhood stance. We can't afford to learn the wrong lesson from the midterms as the campaign for 2016 gets underway.

Humans search for meaning in everything. This impulse can be hazardous when done in the immediate wake of defeat. And so it has been with the analysis of Election 2014, a day that has confused the masses and put political pundits in the tough position of telling the citizenry what it all means.

The Grand Old Party captured Congress - winning in districts where ballot measures to raise the minimum wage and end marijuana prohibition were overwhelmingly approved. A glance at the national returns left many with frustration migraines and an immediate impulse to learn lessons with the power to inform activism, party politics and strategies for the already underway 2016 elections.

Except, very little about the basic numbers and results should surprise anyone. Six in 10 Americans are frustrated with the economy and presidents haven't historically hung onto Congress for the final legislative session of their administrations. Results that should have prompted simply a disappointed shrug for the loss of the Senate and a relieved sigh for the defeat of the two personhood ballot measures, have been repeatedly picked apart and declared meaningful for pro-choice proponents over the past week.

One race in particular seems to be teaching people the wrong lesson. Joni Ernst edged out Bruce Braley in Iowa for the open US Senate seat left vacant by Tom Harkin's retirement. Much early ado was made about her pig castration ad (she knows how to reduce pork in Washington thanks to her farming roots!), but the campaign was quickly depicted nationally as a battle over her extremist legislative record in the Iowa State Senate. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27400-what-does-joni-ernst-s-support-for-embryo-personhood-really-tell-us

[yeoman6987]

1. I think she won because she is far far from

Being Washington. She is one of us is probably what the voters were thinking. A hog farmer who happens to be military. Just a guess on my part.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I take it to mean

the people of Iowa that VOTED FOR HER want women who experience ectopic pregnancies to die.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/10/01/the-braley-ernst-clash-over-personhood-in-iowa/

The statement mixes “would” and “could,” but a key section relies on “could:” “Some of the most effective and reliable forms of contraception, such as oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and other forms of FDA-approved hormonal contraceptives could be banned in states that adopt ‘personhood’ measures. Women’s very lives would be jeopardized if physicians were prohibited from terminating life-threatening ectopic and molar pregnancies. Women who experience pregnancy loss or other negative pregnancy outcomes could be prosecuted in some cases.”

They - the people that voted for Ernst must like monsters - because to me? That makes her a Monster.

[cali]

3. no one has been saying that.

[Orsino]

4. That an awful lot of Americans believe in magic...

...especially that special, magical satisfaction they find in punching women.