Liberals acting like toddlers

I didn’t know it was possible to overplay a losing hand.

I’ve been to the Capitol a lot this year. I have a lot of friends there that I worked tirelessly for nearly two years to elect.

There are some bold changes coming to the Iowa Code. Despite claims from the left that Republicans are overplaying their hand and enacting policy they didn’t campaign on, for the first time we have a state and federal government delivering their campaign promises.

And what did the left do?  

Starting with the inauguration they went to D.C. and participated in parades wearing vagina costumes. They touted their numbers and claimed they were the voice of America.

Months after Trump painted the country red, they pretended they had the numbers to move policy. And when Trump claimed the media wasn’t being fair, the left scoffed.

Reasonable people look at election night juxtaposed to rallies featuring Madonna making bomb threats on the White House and Ashley Judd reciting a poem about her period and determine which side is credible.

The leftist activists are getting louder and the media is sympathetic. We all grew up here and know that game. We know that leftists are unapologetic, intolerant and will have their say even if nobody listens but partisan reporters.

And if they don’t get deference they will scream louder and wear bigger vagina costumes. They will shout down every public official in every venue.

But who is listening to that?  

Is a family that is desperately trying to engage their state representative on a legitimate problem more likely to vote Democrat after the screaming at a town hall kept them from asking a question? Are they happy their email got buried under 100 others sent by a George Soros-funded PAC?  

Although there are a lot of independent voters in Iowa, most favor a conservative or liberal worldview. There is a frustrated constituency that tends to go back and forth and they are a small population. And many of those folks are getting cemented with conservatives by the temper tantrums of the left.  

The new “vagina hat” liberals have started blaming the voters: “You voted for this! That means you support defunding Planned Parenthood! You support expanding gun rights!  You support budget cuts!”

Voters in Iowa chose Trump over Clinton by nearly 10 points. Iowa went redder than Texas.

Many voters just wanted change. But now those same voters who voted Trump have some skin in the game and have already invested their vote. Liberals are screaming at them and putting them on the defense of the Republican platform of defunding Planned Parenthood, supporting gun owners and creating a balanced budget that doesn’t kick the can down the road.

It’s expensive to tell these new supporters what we are fighting for, and their intolerance is more credible than our electioneering. Thanks, hippies. They won’t be swing voters anymore. The left is convincing former swing voters what is right.

And what comes next?  

Threats that 2018 there will be retribution? A year that puts Democrats on the defense for both the state and federal Senate there will be retribution? That’s not realistic. Republicans are likely to gain seats. And Iowans should ask liberals the obvious question: Why are you threatening retribution in 2018?

What were you doing last year?

Were you lazy or did you lose the people?”

They weren’t lazy. I ran across them while I was banging on doors. They just lost the people. And now they are blaming the people?   

I was at an event this week in Ames with Secretary of State Paul Pate. He said, “I served two terms in the Iowa Senate. I served as secretary of state for four years a while ago. And now I’m serving another term.  In all those years of public service I have never seen people so rude with others that if their mother saw them would kick them right in the heinie.”

He’s right.

Liberals are overplaying their hand. They are acting like spoiled toddlers. And in November 2018, they will get a spanking.

John Thompson, of Jefferson, is a member of the Republican Party of Iowa State Central Committee and a candidate for state treasurer.