Joni Ernst: 'Life Is Nasty, Brutish, And Short. Now Have I Told You About Jesus?'

It's all very dark.

The Republicans’ latest horror show megabill guts Medicaid, and this has not landed well with the sizable segment of the electorate that enjoys living. Last Friday, at a town hall in Iowa, Sen. Joni Ernst dismissed concerns from her constituents who pointed out that people were “going to die” if the bill passes. Ernst’s response was a blunt, “Well, we’re all going to die.” Seriously. Watch below.

Yes, it’s true that in the “Tibetan philosophy, Sylvia Plath sense of the word, we’re all dying,” but there’s a difference between a peaceful death at 90 and a painful death at 40 from lack of health care. Our mortality is actually what makes every second of life precious.

The omnipotent Q (John DeLancie) from Star Trek: The Next Generation once dismissed humanity as a species that is “always suffering and dying,” but he’d later dedicate his final act of existence to improving the life of a single person. The renegade Time Lord in Doctor Who has willingly sacrificed his life for humans whose lifespans are laughable compared to his.

Unfortunately, humanity has not similarly inspired Joni Ernst. It seems to have escaped her entirely. Her callous sentiments remind me of The Flash’s time-traveling villain Eobard Thawyne, who felt no remorse when killing people in the present day because from his perspective, they had already been dead for centuries. When Ernst tells her legitimately concerned constituents, “Well, we’re all going to die,” she sounds like Sherlock’s Jim Moriarty when told that people have died because of his twisted games. “That’s what people do!” he exclaims with annoyed fury.

---

---

Beneath The Mask, Marco Rubio Was Always MAGA

It might seem strange that a sitting senator would align herself with comic book supervillains and criminal psychopaths. However, Ernst is making herself comfortable in a party led by Donald Trump. She even followed his lead of never apologizing. Ernst posted an Instagram video that subjects us to an extreme closeup of her face as she walks through a cemetery and mocks anyone who was offended by her remarks.

“I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall,” Ernst said in a tone of voice that immediately indicated her lack of sincerity. “See, I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member when a woman who was extremely distraught screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium: ‘People are going to die.’ And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well, but for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Watch below.)

Around the same time, the great Patti LuPone released an actual sincere apology about some insulting remarks she’d made in the New Yorker about fellow Broadway stars Audra MacDonald and Kecia Lewis: “For as long as a I have worked in the theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today,” she posted on social media.

pattilupone

A post shared by @pattilupone

It takes strength to admit when you’re wrong, so obviously, a party in the grasp of a faux strongman like Trump would emulate his moral weakness. Although, the phony sarcastic apology predates the GOP’s total Trumpification. Ted Cruz offered his own smarmy version during the 2016 primary when he claimed that Trump embodied “New York values.” (This was not a compliment.) Cruz’s glib response to the resulting backlash was “true to form”: “Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bill de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo have all demanded an apology, and I’m happy to apologize — I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who’ve been let down by liberal politicians in that state.”

Cruz probably assumed New York was a safe punching bag as it’s hardly a battleground state and usually not that relevant in a Republican primary — except it was in 2016 and New York voters throughly repudiated Cruz. He came in a distant third behind John Kasich and left the state with zero delegates.

Ernst ends her bizarre non-apology with a missionary appeal to “embrace my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Apparently, you’ll worry less about hunger and death once you’ve found Jesus.

Like most Republicans, Ernst promotes prosperity gospel, which contends that financial blessing and physical well-being are always the will of God, and if you’re broke and sick, it’s not just dumb look but the result of moral failing. We’re all susceptible to this: When you hear that a former classmate or coworker has died, there’s a part of you that’s reassured if you feel like it’s their fault — they were a chainsmoker or drove too fast, etc. No one likes that idea that you can do nothing wrong but still lose everything. This is why Ernst might actually gain support from her gross comments.

The GOP megabill takes a buzzsaw to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, but Republicans insist that this will only affect the undeserving. Ernst pushed this dogma at Friday’s town hall: “What you don’t want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable,” she said. “Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect.”

However, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the GOP bill could remove Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and result in 7.6 million more uninsured people over 10 years. House Speaker Mike Johnson repeated the lie on Sunday — the Lord’s day for fibs — that people will only lose coverage if they “choose to do so.”

“[Medicaid] is intended for young, you know, single, pregnant women and the disabled and the elderly,” Johnson said. “But what’s happening right now is you have a lot of people, for example, young men, able-bodied workers, who are on Medicaid. They’re not working when they can.”

This is all hogwash, but it resonates with those who want to believe that people who need public assistance aren’t simply less fortunate but undeserving. They probably applaud during A Christmas Carol when Scrooge suggests that the poor should just die and “decrease the surplus population.”

New GOP Rep Wants ‘More Daniel Pennys’ Decreasing Surplus Population

Last month, The New York Times published some Trump administration propaganda justifying cuts to Medicaid. The authors were Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mehmet Oz, Brooke Rollins, and Scott Turner — all of whom will likely benefit from the GOP bill’s trillions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

Both Kennedy Jr. and the so-called Dr. Oz advocate a Darwinian view of public health: It’s not the government’s responsibility to “promote the general welfare.” Instead, it’s every citizen’s duty to remain fit and healthy so you’re not an unsightly burden to others. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign is just survival of the fittest.

Joni Ernst didn’t apologize for her Town Hall remarks because she doesn’t consider them a “gaffe.” It’s heartless GOP policy. When Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) said, “I don’t see why men shouldn’t be as cruel as nature,” he at least owned up to quoting a monster like Hitler. Ernst will pass off Hobbesian philosophy as Christian scripture.