Vander Plaats was Never Smart Enough to be Governor

There must be something in the water they drink in Sioux City. Imagine a candidate for public office advocating to remove learned men and women from running Iowa’s government. Imagine a candidate for governor in Iowa running on a platform that says I want only the dumbest and least educated people running government with me; I need people to run government who will ignore Iowa law. Which is similar to saying you want your appointees to be dishonest intellectually and otherwise. Well that’s exactly what Bob Vander Plaats is saying. Vander Plaats is seeking to remove three learned and duly appointed Iowa Supreme Court justices because they chose to follow the law and to not ignore the Iowa Constitution.  I’m not making this up; this is headline news in Ioway.

He knows not what he does advocate. Is he purposefully trying to embarrass Iowa?

It all started with the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling that the Iowa Constitution doesn’t allow discrimination against gay and lesbian couples in denying them a marriage license. The law involving equal protection under the law is clear and the Justices had no choice in how to rule; which is why the decision was unanimous. That little fact seems to have escaped Vander Plaats’ reasoning. Our government simply can’t do what he’s asking Iowa citizens to promote. It’s embarrassing to see this sophomoric argument being nationally advocated to the media. It’s alright to disagree with the decision, but not with the reasoning, only the result. To take it out on Supreme Court Justices who study Iowa’s Constitution, is the worst kind of politics. Vander Plaats is cultivating fear, like Hitler did, by promoting Archie Bunker’s mentality. What his supporters  want is result oriented reasoning that allows their own phobias to dictate state policy,  constitutional law and legal reason. Well simply put it can’t. Now you may ask yourself well, why couldn’t it?

Well it’s pretty simple.  If it did where would it end? Let’s look at how absurd and how self serving it would get.

If the law can deny a marriage license to same sex couples then it could also deny a license to couples who were straight but …

• Of a different color.
• Same color but of different races.
• Same races but different nationalities.
• Same nationalities but different religions.
• Same religions but different creeds.
• Same creeds but different states of residences.
• Same states of residence but different citizenships.
• Same citizenships but different towns.
• Same towns but not both Dutch.
• Both Dutch but one isn't an Iowan.
• Both Iowans but one is a farmer and the other a city dweller.
• Both Iowans but reside in different counties.
• Both are Iowans but one went to ISU and the other Iowa. Okay maybe Hawkeye alumni shouldn’t be allowed to marry Cyclones, I can appreciate that being constitutional.

It should be obvious that Vander Plaats knows not what he’s advocating and simply wants attention. He’s getting attention in the worse possible way; by polarizing Iowans to focus on hate rather than on what’s wrong with the economy and how to fix it. His vision is myopically egocentric and without direction for the future of the State. As a fellow Republican I’m ashamed of him, what he stands for and frankly how idiotic and simplistic his thinking portrays us as a culture. You see Bob there is a reason why in this state we have a brain drain problem. And it’s why Iowa is Ioway; young person with an open mind choose to move away to places where the culture is more accepting. That’s not how Iowans want to be portrayed. Historically the reason the Underground Railroad went through Iowa was because of how accepting and forward thinking are Iowan’s.  

The three justices he seeks to unseat have done nothing wrong; in point of fact they’ve done everything right. Come this fall Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, Justice David Baker and Justice Michael Streit should be resoundingly retained. Iowans shouldn’t reject sound legal reasoning but that which makes us look small, petty and insignificant.

Archie Bunker on Democrats

Archie Gets His Day in Court – As Archie says, Bob is up the creek in a boat with a hole.

See Vander Plaats seeks to eject 3 justices, August 7, 2010, Des Moines Register, Jason Clayworth reporting.