As the impeachment three-ring circus continues in Washington and there is hope we might finally evict the white supremacist misogynist in chief from the White House, it’s time to get really serious about how we are going to clean house in Nebraska to ensure that we also evict Tr*mp‘s (and Ricketts’s) complicit lapdogs and that we don’t go down this fascist path again. It is absolutely urgent that Nebraska be taken out of the hands of billionaire evangelical special interest groups and returned to the Nebraskans themselves. The best way to do that is by replacing our spineless bootlicking representatives who have been bought by interests outside of the state, like Ben Sasse and his Koch habit.
Wanted, one good woman
So far we have great women running against Fart (Babs Ramsey and Kate Bolz), Sasse (Angie Phillips), and Bacon (Kara Eastman and Morgann Freeman). What we need is a good woman to replace Adrian Smith in CD3.
Adrian Smith, who does not believe that access to food is a basic human right for the children of Nebraska, is up for re-election again in 2020, and, unbelievably, nobody is running against him. We know there are literally thousands of people who would be a better representative for the people of CD3 than Adrian has been. What exactly has Adrian Smith done for the people of Nebraska? Let’s take a look.
In 2006 Adrian Smith won the Republican primary in CD3 with 39% of the vote, thanks mostly to heavy funding from the Club for Growth, yet another offshoot of the Koch brothers, that supports, among other things, funneling taxpayer money meant for public schools to private Christian schools. They also support the abolition of all agricultural subsidies as well as the abolition of the Department of Agriculture itself. What sort of rural Nebraskan allows himself to be bought by this group? Someone who doesn’t care about the people in the community that he grew up in. Sorry Gering, Nebraska, it’s cool that you bought insurance from him and his dad, but Adrian Smith doesn’t care about you at all, despite what he says to your face at Calvary Memorial on Sundays. Since 2013 farm income has fallen 60 percent, and since 2015, bankruptcies in Nebraska have tripled. Suicide rates among farmers are increasing alarmingly. As someone who grew up on a farm outside Gering and whose grandparents on both sides were also farmers in the Scottsbluff/Gering area, this is utterly heartbreaking to me. Adrian Smith also grew up outside Gering at the same time I did, but apparently Straight Jesus and that Koch money have blinded him to the misery and harm he has directly helped to cause to the people in his community.
Since winning his seat in 2006, Adrian Smith has voted to repeal Frank-Dodd Act and has introduced amendments specifically to reduce assistance to the most marginalized Nebraskans. These bills have Orwellian doublespeak names like the Jobs and Opportunity with Benefits and Services for Success Act and Focusing State Efforts to Expand Opportunity Act and Increasing Opportunity and Success for Children and Parents through Evidence-Based Home Visiting Act . He of course moved to repeal Obamacare and to thwart the Environmental Protection Agency in any way he could.
He voted against the Violence Against Women Act, but, don’t worry, he only voted against VAWA because of “provisions in the Senate bill that extended VAWA’s protections to lesbians, gays, immigrants, and Native Americans.” He also voted no on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation and on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes.
Smith’s pro-life agenda includes giving the “pre-born” equal protections, though. As long as they aren’t gay I guess? His “pro-life” agenda also included voting against paid family leave and against the expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicare, which would help actually-born children.
Adrian Smith is against extending unemployment benefits and against increasing the minimum wage. He voted against a bill prohibiting employers from interfering when their employees attempt to unionize.
He voted voted YES on “protecting cyber security by sharing data with government”. He voted to terminate funding for Nebraska Public Radio.
Adrian Smith voted against the protection of wild horses and burros. In fact, he received a 0% rating from the Humane Society Legislative fund.
Do any of these votes sound like votes that represent Nebraskans? I don’t know why we have tolerated this fraud as our “representative” for 13 years. I do know someone else out there in CD3 can do better, and that someone has our full support. Who will go to Washington and tell them Nebraska is no longer for sale?
