2017 from bleeding heartland.com

As I have said many times before the picture of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signing a bill to greatly limit the union representation among Iowa public employees in a closed door room with only the lobbyist for Americans For Prosperity, Drew Klein, there to watch was the most obscene picture I have ever seen. I even said that just last week.

That picture just screamed that Iowa was in the hands of big business – AFP is the political arm of the Koch Brothers. That picture also screamed that the governor who is supposed to take his direction from THE PEOPLE was actually in service to big business and big money. Branstad and Klein were obviously so ashamed of what they were doing they had to do it behind closed doors on a Friday night when no one else was around.

So much for “of the people, by the people and for the people.” That picture captures in one brief shot all that Americans once rebelled against about 250 years back. That picture also captures in one shot the corruption that has become so endemic in governments led by Republicans. When you envision what is wrong in this country, look at that picture and you can see it represented in that picture.

Why bring it up again so quickly then? Well there is only one thing that could make that picture even more obscene. That would be if Klein and Branstad merged into one entity – the take over of Iowa government by the Kock Brothers in one person. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Iowa Republicans have created such a blasphemy in Zack Lahn.

I was watching Iowa Press last week and they had Lahn as their guest. Just seeing Lahn conjured up the picture of Klein and Branstad locked in a room signing away workers rights. There in one person was the potential for a re-enactment in one person. Plus the potential for lots more extreme right wing policies on the wish list of the super rich.

Lahn cut his political teeth as Montana state director for the Koch Brothers Americans for Prosperity. From there Lahn wandered into Kansas where he somehow ended up marrying the ex-wife of a Koch scion. Apparently they get along since the Koch scion financed Lahn’s venture into the world of the private school industry in Kansas.

Thus Lahn’s ties to the Koch organization is still tight. While Lahn mouths what sounds like somewhat of a populist policy, you can bet just like his hero, Donald Trump, Lahn will govern for the rich and well connected.

Herein lies a couple of more red flags on Lahn. His ties to the Kochs signals that he will try to cripple any regulatory power that state government has, giving businesses a green light to screw workers and consumers without much thought.

Lahn’s ties to the privatized school industry signals much worse roads ahead for Iowa’s public school system. Iowa’s public school system under the Republican trifecta leadership of the past decade plus has seen Iowa’s schools dive from the top of the heap in this country to below the middle and still headed down.

The sirens are screaming warnings about what Zach Lahn will do with power. And there is one more. Last week Lahn got an endorsement from a high profile adjudicated criminal who is in the process of destroying our democracy. Yep, Trump endorsed him. Considering the type of life Trump lives and has lived, the type of people he surrounds himself with and the policies (am I right, farmers?) he pushes, having a Trump endorsement should send up a giant red warning signals.

You would think a person with any scruples would refuse, even run, from an endorsement from such a scurrilous character as Trump.

Lahn’s associations and his experiences are loudly telling Iowans that voting for him would be a mistake. After 16 years of the mistakes called Branstad and Reynolds, Iowa simply can’t afford 4 more disastrous years the likes that Zack Lahn will bring to Iowa.

And a note to the Iowa Press reporters – you don’t have to treat Republicans with kid gloves – It is an insult to your viewers.