Category: Windschitl

Every Iowa Republican official supports Trump

I’ve said various mean things about Donald Trump on this blog, and you might think I’m painting his party with too broad a brush, saying the Republican Party totally backs him and no Republican can claim to be free of the stink.  You would be mistaken to think that.

Why is this so important to what Iowa Republican leaders decide to do next? Because you are nationally recognized as the staunchest group of Republican defenders of Donald Trump in the entire country. There were no major holdouts from Iowa elected officials, Terry Branstad’s son is running Trump’s state operation, Joni Ernst embraced him as her headline speaker at her Roast and Ride and Chuck Grassley is holding open a Supreme Court seat just for him. The Republican Party of Iowa is the Trump Party of Iowa, now and forever, if you do not move to immediately denounce Trump and withdraw your support. (And, yes, you should have done this for any number of his previous comments, but hey, here we are.)

Republicans won’t let an anti-bullying bill pass

Iowa House Republicans have blocked anti-bulling legislation for the past six years.  It is overwhelmingly supported by Iowans, even by Governor Branstad, and has overwhelmingly passed the Iowa Senate.

In the 2015 session, Republicans objected that parents wouldn’t always be notified if a student was bullied.  Who could disagree?  Well, the bill required parental notification, but allowed school officials to make an exception if they believe the child would be abused or threatened at home as a result.  Such as, for example, if the child is being bullied for being gay, and the parents might join in the bullying.  Republicans are apparently OK with that.  Certainly Matt Windschitl is OK with bullying gay kids, he wanted to exclude gay kids from the protections enjoyed by straight kids.

ALEC wrote it, Windschitl proposed it: License to Kill Bill

Republican incumbent Matt Windschitl thought that we should have a so-called “Stand Your Ground” law in Iowa, so he proposed HB 57 in 2013.  Such laws lead to more homicides in jurisdictions that have passed similar legislation.

Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden opposed the bill.  “A person already has the right to defend themselves or others, if needed.  The ‘stand your ground’ legislation goes far past that. I refer to it as the ‘license to kill’ statute, because that’s exactly what it does.”

ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing organization backed by the Koch brothers.

Source:  Blog for Iowa

Windschitl: bullying is bad, unless the victim is gay

In 2010, Matt Windschitl introduced a bill excluding gay and transgender students from protection under an anti-bullying law passed in 2007, the Safe Schools Law.  This is the Republican Party that Donald Trump represents so perfectly.  They can’t pass their constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage, so they lash out at the weakest people in society:  gay and transgender teenagers.  Because of course they do.

This is the Republican incumbent that Jan Creasman is up against in November.  You can vote for the party of hate, or you can vote for Jan.