and their evil allies the”so-cons” and Libertarians.
The Democrats spent mightily to nail what they considered those denigrations on her. Millions were spent by Braley, by the Democrat party, by liberal outside special interests, to identify her as such . . . and yet she won handily. The equivalent of millions of dollars of “in kind” support for those attack themes was hurled by the usual suspects in the liberal media (not realizing their waning influence). And yet this “TEA Party” candidate, this “anti-abortion extremist,” this tool of the Koch brothers won. So where is the sting?
Yes she wants to make energy production subsidy free. Yes she signed on to a process for a “personhood” amendment to be set before the people to determine which human beings will be protected by the law. Yes she supports allowing younger workers to optionally substitute private investment accounts for their Social Security “contributions.” Yes she supports the National Rifle Associations views. Yes she supports those and more TEA Party /socon/libertarian positions. Guilty as charged, and she won.
You saw and heard the ads, they were relentless. They ran them thoroughly, including conservative publications (thanks Brucey!).
Now Senator Elect Joni Ernst did not walk away from those positions as candidate Ernst. They are owned by her in the minds of voters, and the substantial majority voted for her. Whether each supporter agreed or not is irrelevant, they were attached to her and that substantial majority did not consider them disqualifying positions.
Some might sneer, including the establishment Republican element that supported her for the most superficial of reasons, that she won in spite of them. That is as wrong as it is irrelevant. Ernst won having those issues indeed those characterizations nailed to her and Braley’s opposite views nailed to him (albeit primarily by outside groups supportive of Ernst). The voters had a distinct choice and they voted for the person with the TEA Party, social conservative/ “libertarian” views. Liberals must be in deep depression, and moderate Republicans must be chagrined. Who will be their whipping “boy” now? Indeed where is the sting? R Mall
Kind of nails it Rog. With all the Blumberg and Steyer money behind Braley, little of it disclosed by Republican or media outets, she still kicked their respective butts. I am hopeful that she can become another voice beside Cruz in the Senate and Gowdy in the House.