Iowa GOP Weaponizing DEI to Divide Voters Through Bigotry and Racism
Along with attacking public schools with lies about Critical Race Theory, The Iowa GOP has come up with a new way to express their coded racism.
UPDATE: I wrote another update with where things stand at one of the three reagent universities, ISU in Ames Iowa, here.
DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. What is this, and why was it adopted at so many institutions of higher education? This is a current hotbed issue for post-secondary education in Iowa. But it shouldn't be. There’s nothing strange or controversial about DEI. We are a welcoming state.
There's nothing exceptional about having a focus on diversity and inclusiveness in education. Yet the extremist Iowa GOP is strongly going after equity and diversity programs everywhere with the obvious goal to kill all of them. Iowa State has already responded by shutting their DEI office down completely. University of Iowa was forced to make changes to their programs and they were required to change their program completely to meet the new law. It’s no longer DEI. UNI also reduced and eliminated DEI programs per the recent law.
Iowa GOP Bigotry Shows Through with Anti-diversity, Anti-equity, and Against Inclusiveness
What has been easy to observe is according to the words alone, for which we will simply refer to as DEI, who wouldn't agree that this would be a good thing for everyone? Who doesn't want to foster diversity, inclusion and a sense of belonging for everyone in a learning setting?
DEI has been in place in Iowa's institutions for higher learning for years, and been used with little notice or complaint previously. DEI has never been made an issue since it's beginnings in the 60s. Why now?
Because the GOP today is not at all the GOP of Robert Ray's time. We need to forget about the GOP of the past. That organization is dead. The state GOP is scared. They’re scared of ridicule from a felon.
Instead, look what they're saying, and look at their recent past track record of actions. They have held all levers of power in this state since 2012, and have consolidated and increased their power since then. They currently hold super-majorities in both chambers of the legislature. I think it’s past time to vote them out of power in every district in the state.
The blame lies squarely on the Iowa GOP, Kim Reynolds, and their associated groups. Some of these are Moms4Liberty, TPUSA, Family Leader, and other extremist hate groups.
Let’s not mince words. The mainstream media is scared to tell the truth about what is happening. We have a risk of losing our democracy and the country we claim to love. The country, as we have known for over 200 years, is on the line this November.
The Iowa GOP has fallen in line under the National MAGA GOP led by Trump. There are no secrets. For those paying attention, the truth is easy to see. Racism is on the rise under felon Trump’s MAGA GOP. After Kim “picked the wrong horse,” and partnered with Governor DeSantis, the answer was clear from Trump.
Follow my lead or I will leave the GOP and split it up, starting a new party. This is all theater. He has owned the GOP since 2016. MAGA=GOP=MAGA. The GOP are in a general sense very weak.
There’s not one of them willing to contradict Trump. Trump has shown racism and disdain for foreigners and immigrants, LGBTQIA, minorities and other marginalized groups. Therefore the Iowa GOP will take the lead from a felon, and continue it here locally. This is what we have to look forward to if Iowans keep voting the same as they have in prior years.
This should be looked at as a likely existential crisis for our country.
DEI is thought of to include University programs related to race, gender identity, and sexual orientation among other things. Yet the State Board of Regents last year started ordering all DEI programs to close.
What about DEI has now suddenly become so compelling that the GOP led legislature and governor so strongly advocated for it's complete removal from all the Reagent Universities at the beginning of the prior school year?
Someone may know the answer to this question, but I can only guess the MAGA GOP has salivated to shut these units down anywhere they can. The MAGA state GOP is the party of White Nationalism, White supremacy, Christian Nationalism, bigotry, racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, extremism and intolerance of anyone who doesn’t look like them.
Don’t merely look at what they say. The state GOP have held all the levers of power for 10 years, and have done nothing but run our state into the ground, damage our families, completely destroy woman's reproductive rights, gut our public education by repeatedly under-funding it year after year, and too many others to mention within this story.
The bottom line? The Iowa GOP does not want our children to learn that racism and bigotry are bad. They want to eliminate the less savory parts of American history from the syllabus altogether. This country was built on slavery. The Iowa GOP do not want our children to learn the facts. They want our children to learn a fairy tale version of the truth. With this, we are bound to repeat our mistakes of the past. Felon ex-president Trump doesn’t care about this.
These extremist groups are actively persecuting teachers for the smallest of infractions, indeed one teacher in Ankeny quitting, getting reported, or fired is all that is needed to create the desired chilling effect on education for the entire district. Teacher’s see the example set, and it affects EVERYTHING at that school. It serves to provide a chilling effect on the curriculum and education at that school. This chilling effect is exactly what the Iowa GOP intends. They don’t want any of us to know the truth. Start it when they’re young and lie throughout their education. This is the GOP strategy going forward.
This is what the felony run GOP wants. This is the real goal. They don’t want our children to grow up learning the American dream — That anyone can make it here. We care about our citizens, residents and visitors and we want everyone to have a chance at the American Dream. The GOP doesn’t believe this. They don’t want us to have our shot at the American Dream. They look at this as a zero sum game, and they are all in with the authoritarianism and fascism that is being planned with Project 2025 under Trump, should his upcoming coup attempt be successful.
These are the ideals we all used to agree on and take for granted in this country. Inclusiveness? When did this become a bad word? When did it become a bad thing? It was certainly commonplace before the extremist governor took over. Before the MAGA GOP, we never would have had the racist and bigoted policies that are being legislated today by the Iowa GOP.
Each legislative year is another chance to see them do yet more damage to our children, families, immigrants, or any of our family or the people we love. They could be the next ones on the MAGA target list.
We can all easily stop this. Anyone who understands it’s an issue to have a felon leading the strongest country on earth, and turning it into a fascist hellhole, vote straight down the ballot ANTI-MAGA. And even if you’re not a Democrat, in this case it means voting straight Democrat. This is the way to take MAGA out of power permanently. Let’s send the strongest signal possible and make it next to impossible for Mr. Trump to cheat.
Even that isn’t enough. The MAGA GOP is now following the Russian tactics for illiberal democracies. Cheat, then claim victory no matter what happens. Create 3rd party candidates to siphon votes away from the Democratic nominee. You think Trump will behave any differently than he did in his failed coup attempt of January 6, 2001?
This is the new face of the fascist Iowa GOP. They are all in on the racist and bigoted MAGA philosophies. All of the reactionary legislation they passed is showing us exactly who they are. Bigots, racists, people who will put raw political power above Iowans, visitors, residents, minorities, LGBQTIA, and even their own country. Thus, every day is a violation of their oath of office. It has become so commonplace we just accept it. Well, we don’t need to accept this, and we shouldn’t accept it.
The very easy way to stop this is for an anti-MAGA coalition that will include liberals, democrats, independents, Never Trumpers, Centrists and even Conservatives who realize the truth about Trump. To defeat fascism, ALL of us need to vote for the same alternative to fascism. We need all power concentrated AGAINST the aspiring fascist authoritarian leader.
Anyone who wants to keep living in America as we know it needs to help concentrate the vote in just one place to send an unmistakable signal. The country will not stand for re-election of a bigoted felon who stole protected documents risking every one of ours’ safety. The debate performance means nothing. It’s a distraction only. Forget about it and consider my suggestion. The importance of this goes well beyond President Biden’s age or even his physical condition. This is about keeping our country recognizable as the country we grew up in.
Iowa, we can do better than this. Anyone who talks anti-DEI is using the language of coded racism. They are making the political statement that they stand with the felon run MAGA GOP.
Subsequently, SF 2345 was passed and enacted. This law will use a broader definition of DEI. They didn’t go far enough last year, they think. This law will also bar universities from starting or funding DEI departments. The Attorney General's office is tasked with handling any complaints that DEI is still being taught in schools or talked about. Is Brenna Byrd, our GOP Attorney General our new thought police?
What will all of this do? It’s been noted that this presents a chilling effect on every teacher in the building as they struggle to try to figure out what they can and cannot talk about. You know the ultimate loser in all of these battles? Our children. But the Iowa GOP do not care about education or our children. They are throwing bones to their campaign donors. This, it seems, is the ONLY class of people that they do truly care about. For the business class and business elite are the ones who have supported and funded the Iowa GOP for years.
The Iowa Board of Reagents received administration guidance to gut all of the DEI programs at the three regent universities at the beginning of this school year. The Senate bill made the regents rules irrelevant, and mandated the closure of any DEI related program.
What does the Iowa GOP have against diversity, equity and inclusion? Do they want our universities to exclude certain historically underrepresented groups? Foreign students? Why would they want to treat LGBTQIA, minorities, foreign students, or other any other populations without equity and inclusion? Do they want to exclude certain groups that don’t meet their own arbitrary criteria? What is the criteria we must meet to be included?
The Iowa GOP is barely even trying to hide their White Christian Nationalist aims anymore. This is all being done right out in the open. This means we can see it going on, and we can protest and write letters against the removal of DEI from higher education. I want to know what the difference is between the state GOP and any other white nationalist organization. Can someone tell me? Every action they take is in furtherance to increasing the power of the white man. Nothing else. We need to think more carefully who we are voting for and the consequences of our votes. Don’t give power to those who are not helping us, the Iowa voters. They are helping large businesses, business class donors, and the chosen few that fit within their criteria.