Iowa: Bad Nanny State

Conservatives like to talk up themselves as the bearers of "freedom" but the Republicans in our state are creating a bad nanny state. They are doing it by reducing the kind of local control counties and cities may have around wages, environmental and water quality, and even fireworks saying that they are supporting small businesses. They are controlling what school boards, libraries, and universities may allow students to learn or read or do to ensure inclusion and equity for all students under the guise of giving parents more say. They are even picking winners and losers in the workforce sector by guiding Federal dollars to questionable projects. Also, in true form, they are ratcheting up the limits a woman has over her own body and health by further limiting access to reproductive care saying that they are saving lives. Lastly, they are limiting all of our right to choose by making it increasingly harder to vote by saying they are protecting our elections.

You wouldn't be wrong to say that you are free to do whatever Republican lawmakers in Iowa allow you to be free to do. The party of "small government" is big on law enforcement and bigger on new laws to enforce against your personal freedoms. While they help corporations and the wealthy to profiteer (which, in no small way is a chief reason for inflation and wages that are growing at less than the national average), they are making it harder for people to get back on their feet after the setbacks of the last two years and to care for their children.

Given the differences between Republican policies of the last several years, you'd think that Iowans would see that their freedom isn't so free and certainly is not freeing. And what will Iowans get for their continuation of policies? Republicans want you to believe that they will allow you to keep more money in your pockets. But how is that possible when they keep making it more expensive to take care of your family, your health, and even your livelihood? In their picture, we will only make investments in things that endanger the lives of workers, prop up decaying (and even dying) industries, and increase their personal bottom lines. All politics serves a purpose, a really important question for Iowa voters to consider is who is serving their interests today and tomorrow?