The extreme radical right that runs the Republican Party in Iowa and in the country, found reason to add to my small but growing collection of what I think of as obscene pictures this week. These are pictures I so deem because they illustrate situations that should not happen in the US if we truly followed our founders and practiced the ideals they left us with.
My original obscene picture was from Iowa from 2017. It was a picture of the Governor Branstad signing a hateful piece of legislation behind closed doors. He had to sign it behind closed doors because it was so odious that the Fire Marshall may have had to clear out the capitol because of the stink.
2017 from bleeding heartland.com
But what made this picture truly obscene is that Branstad signed the bill with an audience of 1. That individual was Drew Klein. Mr. Klein’s job that day was to make sure his group – Americans For Prosperity (a political front group for the Koch Brothers) – got what they paid for as Branstad signed a bill that drastically cut the rights of unions in Iowa. It was the capture of Iowa for the wealthy recorded in all its obscene glory for the ages.
And it was prescient. Almost 10 years later, Republicans have once again teamed with Americans For Prosperity – well maybe teamed with isn’t quite right – now they are just running one of the Americans For Prosperity members for governor and cutting out the middle man. Elect Zach Lahn and you get the Koch Brothers right in Terrace Hill. No need for even a phone call. You can bet they will care about Iowans that’s a joke, folks).
Just to show how smug they are about it, Republicans didn’t even bother to pick an Iowans to run. Talk about ‘in our face.’
I had that pic as my “most obscene” for a long time. Actually it still is. If Iowans do the dumbest thing possible and elect Zach Lahn governor, a picture of his swearing in will join it. Americans for Prosperity 2 Iowa 0.
But over the years I have moved other photos into obscenity status. I was reminded of such status by my two new entries that were taken over Trump’s pathetic mashing of what should have been a great event (250th birthday) for all (that is ALL!) Americans. The first was a black woman on a DC Metro train surrounded by 400 masked up “Patriot Front” white supremacists sometime during the weekend festivities.
That woman had to be scared to death. My thought immediately jumped to Little Rock Arkansas, 1957. One picture from that event still lingers in my mind from when I first saw that long ago.
Sadly it truly represented the America of its time, much as the DC Metro picture represents America today. In both cases these pictures represent what happens when true morality is abandoned by on of our political parties.
Shortly after that, Citizen Roswell Encina, a historian, took a picture of himself that parallels that of the black woman on the DC metro. Encina is of Filipina heritage and gay. As such he would be a target of a group like the Patriot Front. This picture also shows the obscene side of America today. Remember, it is groups like the Patriot Front that Trump called “fine people” in Charlottesville some 10 years ago. Obscene!
Finally, I present a picture from way back that is both obscene but also portended the hope and progress to come. I think all I have to say is Ruby Bridges and you all know what the picture is.
We must sweep away the vestiges of racism. America must once again set itself on a course of equal justice under the law as our founders wanted. Enough obscenities.
As I was writing my thoughts to tie these images together into this post, I ran across this substack piece that does a much better job of tying it all together than I did. I recommend you take a few minutes to read it.
Blog For Iowa 
One of the Iowa political slogans I’m hearing/reading these days is “Iowans deserve clean water.” I am tempted to amend that, however, to say that Iowans who vote for Zach Lahn do not deserve clean water. It is already crystal clear (unlike Iowa water) that Lahn is a total phony-baloney on the water issue.
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