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[Luminous Animal]

This message was self-deleted by its author (Luminous Animal) on Wed Jan 21, 2015, 11:25 AM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[ecstatic]

1. She said the bread bags were worn over her shoes. DU members who

used bread bags said they went INSIDE the shoe, over the sock. Joni lied.

[ecstatic]

4. Interesting. nt

[pnwmom]

73. How did they not get ripped to shreds, if you walked any distance? What did kids do who didn't

qualify for a bus and had to walk a mile or two?

[pnwmom]

85. Well, you weren't wearing the plastic bags over your skate blades. What about when there wasn't smooth ice

on the ground, but hard sand and grit?

(I also loved it when ice would turn our streets into ice-rinks -- but that's another issue.)

[pnwmom]

100. I believe you were poor -- but I have my doubts about Joni Ernst.

My husband was raised in a ranching family. He not only had no boots, he had no shoes until he started kindergarten at 5 and a half. His mother had bought him a pair but his grandmother made her return them, saying they were a waste of money!

This family, like many ranching/farming families, wasn't poor as much as extremely frugal -- habits that developed in the Depression and served them well in the decades beyond. Ranchers and farmers often live far from stores and learn to make do. But they are not the same as poor people who have no choice.

My husband could have worn shoes. It wasn't that they were so poor then that they couldn't afford them. But his family saved every penny, throughout their entire lives. And I wouldn't be surprised if this was the kind of family Ernst came from, too.

Because what effect has it had on her? She's against the Federal minimum wage, against governmental poverty programs, and wants to go back to the days of "wonderful pantries" run by charities. She has so little actual empathy for real poor people that I can't believe she ever was one. She was just raised by extremely frugal people and, deep down inside, thinks everyone should live that way. She'd probably applaud the kind of people who think it's fine not to give kids shoes to wear till they go to school.

[pnwmom]

104. I think they ARE attacking her credibility. She comes across as a very phony person,

and that's why no one believes her story. It's not that they don't believe poor people have suffered and continue to suffer things like this and even much worse.

It's just that her affect in telling the story was so smilingly weird that -- in combination with her policy positions -- it is impossible to believe that this isn't some made-up story she's told so often she might even believe it.

[pipi_k]

170. Sometimes people smile

in a weird manner when they're telling sad stories about their lives so they won't cry.

[SammyWinstonJack]

147. It isn't her poverty stories, it's that her party does all it can to

create poverty. Is she offering a solution? Nope!

She is embarrassing herself and her party.

[ND-Dem]

109. joni was born in 1970; her family owned a farm and a construction company. she went to

university and graduate school, on time. she worked for her father's company as a young person.

she was never poor.

and I can't believe the poster thinks that calling her on it and on her stupid stories is an attack on the poor.

SHE'S THE ONE ATTACKING THE POOR.

[Munificence]

157. Not to defend her

but I was born in 1970, we had a small farm, dad owned a construction company and he made the equivalent of maybe $35K a year today. I worked every summer helping him as a kid from the time I was maybe 12 (No pay, they fed me and housed me, at least I could help contribute). Mom and Dad were frugal (thermostat set on 60 during the winter) burned coal and wood in the winter. If we were lucky we got to eat out at Ponderosa Steak house maybe once every other month. Many of night in my teens that I'd wake up in the middle of the night and need to go "stoke and bank" the fire to keep the house warm.

Dad came from a family of 9 brothers and sisters and mom came from a family with 11 brothers and sisters. Mom never had indoor plumbing until she was 19 and only had electric in one room of her house. My parents grew up in a heavy shadow of the great depression and were simply "frugal" in what they purchased, if you did not need it you didn't get it. This carried over into the way my sister and I were raised.

My mother has stated that she never knew she was poor growing up until others felt compelled enough to tell her that she was. A common saying from my mom was: "Use it up and wear it out, make it do or do without".

Oh and I wore bread sacks but inside my shoes. Feet use to freeze as it was kind of self defeating as you'd put them over your socks to keep the moisture from the snow out but since you had the bread sacks on your feet would sweat more than normal and get really cold.

Good memories. I had roughly 18 hours of chores to do each week, once they were done my parents pretty much let me decide for myself what to do with my free time.

I didn't listen to her speech so I do not know what was said, just felt compelled with my similarities. Is she lying, ah, who knows? But I think we are wrong in the accusation as her story rings true with a lot of folks from that generation...it was the way most lived as a society (at least in the one I was living in). Today you'd probably get child protective services called if someone noticed bread sacks on kids feet or if they wore tennis shoes out in the snow vs a pair of $100 water proof boots....converse were worn as our snow shoes and running shoes. Heck I even requested a pair of "moon boots" for Christmas one year - didn't get them though!

Saying that this woman has to be lying simply because she is a republican is like saying that George Soros, Oprah, and even most of our leaders in the house that are wealthy must be republicans. There are rich and poor people on both sides of the isle and simply because one owned a construction company and/or a farm does not mean they are wealthy or even middle class.

The amount of money one makes does not signify ones political beliefs and yet we continue to make the assumption that it does for some odd reason? Nothing like "labeling" and categorizing, same as the "do gooders" that felt compelled to let my mom know that she was indeed poor growing up.

[Paladin]

165. +1000. Ernst is a liar and a hypocrite. She's spitting on the hardships of the poor.

And I will be Goddamned if I will cut her any slack for it.

[Skidmore]

110. This is my reaction to her too.

After enduring her endless Koch fueled ads here for a year that were fact checked to proved how false they were, she continued in the finest tradition of the right--keep lying as if you are telling the truth and wear people down.

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/joni-ernst/

[ND-Dem]

111. according to the op, we can't say anything about it though, because the stories are what poor

people really do. so we might offend them or make them feel bad.

like joni isn't going to make them feel bad when she cuts up the social safety net.

you'll love working for slave wages for her family's businesses, suckers!

[ND-Dem]

162. It would be funny if I mocked poor people, since I AM one NOW.

[pnwmom]

137. Thanks for the link! nt

[madokie]

127. NO they weren't

they were to keep your feet dry in less that good shoes while possibly out rabbit hunting to bring food back to the supper table.
Thats the jesus fucking christ

[JDPriestly]

38. I was probably older. I wore them in my shoes.

[KoKo]

176. That's what I remember doing...growing up rural. n/t

[madokie]

125. Bread bags on the inside of the holey shoe over the holey socks

I know because that was me and my brother when we'd head out in the snow for some rabbit hunting to hopefully bring home a rabbit or two for supper.
Fried wild rabbit is awesome too
even better if thats all you have

[KMOD]

129. Bread bags = galoshes. Same concept.

Hugs to you LA.

[FrenchieCat]

2. What solution did she propose during her speech…

To get people out of poverty? So that they wouldn't have to wear bags on their feet or eat sugar sandwiches? Because that would be the important part of her speech, right?

[Cali_Democrat]

20. So you care more about what a few anonymous posters say on a message board

...than policy proposals that will hurt millions of poor people?

[Bluenorthwest]

158. Ernst is anti gay, anti choice, supports privatization of Medicare, dismantling the EPA and opposes

the Federal Minimum Wage. I'd rather see Democrats talk about those shitty points of view. But of course, some who are busily focused on the 'bread bags' support other public figures who are anti gay and anti choice so those people would rather talk about bread bags, just as Ernst would rather talk about the bread bags of the past than the bread lines of the present.

[ND-Dem]

21. people are mocking ernst. because she's a liar; she was never poor.

[JDPriestly]

40. I'm with you, Luminouos Animal.

[pnwmom]

77. I think people are mocking Joni and her stepford-wife, smiling presentation, as if there was

something nostalgic about the story she was telling. And it also sounded like those stories old people like to tell, that seem to get more elaborate as the decades go on. Imagine what she'll be saying some day.

"You should be grateful for your bus! When I was your age, I had to walk five miles through snowdrifts that were ten feet high, wearing only plastic bread bags over my sneakers and a trash bag for a coat."

[hatrack]

130. No, we're mocking the lives and actions of lying, hypocritical people . . .

Phony people who talk about how much they want to help the poor while working steadily to hurt the poor, because hurting poor people makes them and their supporters feel good.

For the record, it was galoshes for me, swapped out for The Good Shoes once I got to school, so yes, I can relate to what she's talking about. It's her that I have great difficulty "relating" to.

[Bettie]

139. Here's the point though

She tells probably false stories of her growing up in poverty.

AND she wants to eliminate the minimum wage and do a host of other things that will drive more people into poverty and then pound them farther down.

So, because she tells a story about bread bags (and I recall having them inside my shoes to keep rain/snow from getting in through the holes), we're supposed to support everything she says? We're supposed to say "Well, she wore bread bags on her feet, so we can totally trust her!"?

[lovemydog]

7. Passing Keystone.

Simplifying the tax code.

That's it.

The rest of her talk was about terrorist threats.

[Major Hogwash]

41. Taking away shoes from poor kids.

So, they wouldn't have to use bread bags to keep their feet warm.
If Joni was honest, she would tell people how much she hates poor people.
But, she's a Republican, so she would never ever do anything like that.

[ND-Dem]

75. In past speeches, she's proposed to end the federal minimum wage. That'll help.

[Ken Burch]

82. Her solution is basically making it harder for poor people to survive.

If all the people who are poor now die off of starvation or exposure, we don't have poverty anymore.

Until more people get laid off by Joni's corporate friends.

See how SIMPLE it really is?

[SammyWinstonJack]

148. Right!

[Beaverhausen]

15. You need a hug

She told many lies in her speech so maybe people assume this story is a lie too.

I know we used breadbags sometimes on our feet. Guess not everyone had that experience.

I too wish people here would knock it off.

[ND-Dem]

23. she was never poor. her family owned a farm and a construction company. she went to state

university and graduate school.

[Luminous Animal]

50. I don't care if she was never poor. What I care about is people questioning and mocking

what poor people do. Poor people do where bread bags on the outside of their shoes. Poor people do eat sugar sandwiches. Not for fun but it is the cheapest thing to eat.

[ND-Dem]

52. no one is questioning what poor people do, but what LYING POLITICIANS do, especially ones

who are lying in order to get into office SO THEY CAN TAKE EVEN MORE BENEFITS FROM THE POOR

[WinkyDink]

116. Why are you persisiting in being deliberately obtuse about DU'ers' comments re: Ernst?

[Tom Ripley]

141. +1000???

[polly7]

144. And ketchup sandwiches!

I remember those well ..... nobody would trade with me either : ( And yes, we did wear bags, but mostly just to keep our feet warm up here. We were poor off and on, my Dad worked so hard to make sure we weren't, but there were times that I remember very well.

[dimediego]

108. Why her story is a lie.

Are we supposed to believe that her mom couldn't fashion overshoes out of some of the pig scrotums? I would believe that bread bags would be used in the sty, but unless they left them attached and just took the oysters, they would have used them or an old football for overshoes.

[Hissyspit]

55. You didn't see the speech?

[pnwmom]

79. Please don't be upset. This isn't an attack on poor people. It just seems to many here that Joni's story

was totally hypocritical -- since she's against anything that could really help poor people -- and extremely manipulative. But it was so over-the-top it came across like a Saturday Night Live skit, as Andy Horowitz tweeted.

[Bluenorthwest]

159. Well, you could talk about her opposition to the Minimum Wage or desire to privatize Medicare

but if we talk about actual policy positions, that brings up her anti gay and anti choice positions. I can call her a right wing bigoted and atavistic Republican just for being anti gay and anti choice. I don't have to talk about her childhood.

[ND-Dem]

76. Leave Joni Ernst alone!!!!

[WinkyDink]

117. I get it. ;-)

[ND-Dem]

118. Joni Ernst:

[SammyWinstonJack]

149. heh

[LeftyMom]

10. Mostly it's people who grew up poor saying she sounds like she's bullshitting.

[Luminous Animal]

12. I grew up poor. You put the bread bags on the outside of your shoes so you don't

ruin your shoes. People who call bullshit have no clue as to the realities of growing up in poverty.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. I never knew anyone who put the bags on the outside of the shoes.

I can see trying that but they'd make your shoes slippery, wouldn't they? I did know many who used them to line the shoes to keep feet dry and also knew many who ate sugar sandwiches (many as in most of the kids in my neighborhood.)

I didn't hear the rebuttal so I really don't know the context -- was she talking about how she bootstrapped herself out of poverty thanks to the GOP?

[lovemydog]

19. Here's her speech.

[Gormy Cuss]

150. Thank you. n/t

[ND-Dem]

27. i ate sugar and butter sandwiches cause my mom taught me to. and joni ernst was never poor

a day in her life.

nobody's mocking poverty; they're mocking the liar joni Ernst, who's using poverty to get elected but would like to cut the knees off poor people.

[KT2000]

57. people are not mocking poverty

and to suggest that is to ignore the millions of posts on DU. A good part of the concerns on DU are for people who are in poverty and that includes some DU members who are in desperate situation. This is about a phony politician who was not even poor pandering in her national debut.

I can see where this may hit a nerve for you but this is not ridiculing poverty nor is it ridiculing you.

[Luminous Animal]

67. I've seen two posts...

1 stating poor people don't wear bags outside their shoes. And that post mocked the concept.

And the other post is that poor people don't eat sugar sandwiches because the are poor. Because, hay! What kid doesn't eat sugar sandwiches!

[KT2000]

72. to be fair

post 1 is someone who has not heard about this - not someone mocking people for being poor. That person learned something tonight as did many of us.
post 2 is saying that lots of people eat sugar sandwiches - not limited to people who are poor.

The comments were regarding a phony politician - not you or anyone who is or has been poor.

In full disclosure - I had not heard of wearing the bags on the outside. I wore them over my socks and inside the shoe. If I wore them outside of the shoes during bad weather I would have been falling on my face because I lived in a hilly area where it rains a lot and I actually did that mostly when there was snow and rain. So it did sound strange for me too - from a safety standpoint.
I also ate sugar sandwiches.

Anyway - none of these are an attack on you or people being poor and to say that it is, is not fair.

[AngryAmish]

131. Wrong.

[ND-Dem]

25. we weren't that well off but we weren't 'poor' -- but we ate sugar and butter sandwiches, jam

omelets for dinner, jam and mayo sandwiches, and split pea soup.

that woman was no more poor than I am. in fact, she was a sight richer. her family owned a farm and a construction company.

[Maraya1969]

30. Wouldn't it depend on the type of shoe? Like if they were good Sunday go to meeting

shoes and you had to walk through mud or something I can see putting bags over your shoes. Rich people do the same. They call them galoshes

[Gormy Cuss]

32. Bread bags wouldn't offer any traction and as LeftyMom wrote above, they'd wear out quickly.

I'm not saying some didn't try to make it work, just that where I grew up I don't recall seeing it either for raining or snowy weather. Lots of kids used them as shoe liners though.

[ND-Dem]

78. Yes, they'd make your shoes slippery, Not only because they're plastic, but because you can't get

a tight fit if they're outside, so they're sliding against your shoes, making them even more dangerous in snow or ice or even wet pavement.

[pipi_k]

172. We wore the breadbags

on the outside of our shoes, which we wore inside the rubber boots, which often had holes in them.

and we didn't eat sugar sandwiches, but we did sometimes eat just plain bread and butter sandwiches or even mayonnaise on white bread.

canned beans with nasty cheap fish sticks.

sometimes dinner was cooked spaghetti with a can of tomato soup poured on top for "sauce".

[LeftyMom]

17. You're not the only person who grew up poor.

Bags were on the inside for waterproofing. Two pair of socks under them if it was cold: our shoes were always too big so we'd have growing room anyhow. On the outside they'd wear through before you went a block, and be slippery as all hell until them.

My shoes looked like shit ten minutes after I got them, because I was a kid and they were cheap.

[LeftyMom]

31. "Cheap" in the sense of "of low quality"

If it wasn't the rainy season my shoes were usually the canvas ones that they sold at the drug store, because they were the cheapest thing I could wear to school (we had to have closed-toed shoes) and I'd almost certainly outgrow them- by which I mean my toes would be sticking out of holes in the front- before even they could wear out in any other way. In the winter (or what passes for it here- lots of rain but no snow) I got sneakers from Payless shoes or some discount store. Those didn't fare much better precisely because those were for foul weather.

I outgrew a lot of shoes- by the time I had my first communion (I was seven or eight) I was horrified to discover that no white flats could be found in my size and I had to wear a grown woman's white heels. Most stores don't even carry my size in women's as a fully grown adult.

But thankfully nobody got on my case about scuffing the damned things up. Kids play. That's their damned job. We were poor, and my dad could be a raging asshole about stupid shit, but he valued my need for physical activity (and accepted the clumsiness of awkward, growing bodies) more than he valued the appearance of shoes that I'd outgrow in a matter of weeks.

[LeftyMom]

49. Wait, I'm getting you-don't-know-what-poor-is'd by somebody who went to private school?

Good god, I love the internet sometimes.

[philosslayer]

56. Your empathy is touching

[LeftyMom]

59. My empathy for the far-better-off-than-we-were?

Yeah, I'm not really into getting scolded about how I don't know what it was like to be poor by somebody who went to private school.

[NCTraveler]

177. You are going to win the contest any minute now. nt

[ND-Dem]

81. catholic school costs money.

[eridani]

124. Not necessarily

The Catholic school I went to was supported by our parish, and attended by a lot of poor kids. People need to drop the notion that parochial schools are some kind of elite institution.

[pipi_k]

174. Yep!

Until this past school year my grandson (almost 11) was able to go to a Catholic school.

His parents scrimped and saved and were bailed out a few times by the Parish.

Last year was totally funded by the Parish because my daughter lost her job and her husband got very ill and needed serious surgery.

Private schools are not always "elite".

[DawgHouse]

175. That's exactly how it was for my husband's family growing up in Philly.

They didn't pay but as members of the parish, they did go to St Barts!

[SunSeeker]

62. I guess that's why they couldn't afford shoes.

I could have worn nothing but bread bags and my family still would not have been able to pay for private school.

[LeftyMom]

68. We couldn't have gone if it was free- too far and no bus service, and Dad left for work hours before

school started.

Fortunately we got a transfer to go to a better public school than the one in the neighborhood where we lived, and that was just on the outer limit of what it was reasonable (by 80's standards, I think these days the parent would be flogged) for little kids to walk.

[SunSeeker]

154. Why did your family make you go to such a horrible place? nt

[SunSeeker]

163. So when the nuns introduced you as a charity case they also said not to tell anyone?

I am glad I went to a public school where there were plenty of poor kids. Plus me and my brother got free lunches--our best meal of the day. We didn't have to wear sandwich bags to protect our shoes--there were no nuns to worry about pissing off for having scuffed shoes.

[rbrnmw]

95. huh????

why are you?

Rolling on the floor laughing

[DebJ]

106. Wow, Luminous, I'm so sorry you had such a horrible experience there.

I'm 59, and I went to Catholic School, and we had nothing like that going on at all. I am extremely grateful for my 8 years in Catholic school.
I went to school in a DC suburb in Maryland. I am so very sorry that you had such a cruel and tragic experience. It was nothing like my own.

Most of the families were huge in my school; we had 'only' four children, and we were like a micro-family. Several families took up an entire pew, and the pews held something like 15-20 people. I remember one family where the mother was pregnant with number 16 or 17, and so was her married daughter. It was an enormous church at that time. I'd guess that it seated at least 2000 or more, and there were at least four or 5 masses every Sunday, with at least three of those sessions jam-packed.

And I guess that enormous population in the church is why my parents could afford Catholic School. The rates were nothing like today. The first child paid full tuition ($60 a year back then; Mom saved one of her cancelled checks and gave it to me with other mementos). The second child paid half tuition. If you had three or more children in the school that ran from grades 1-8, tuition was free, paid for from the church collection plates, for students #3 and more. We had to also buy our books, but there were plenty of used books available, and you could easily resell everyone to the next year's students, or pass them down to a sibling. They were good books, too, for that time period. I used to dig eagerly into them in August when I was bored from the long summers and eager for something to do. My family didn't have much money, either, though we were lower middle class (and I recognize the differences, having taught in an inner city) and we didn't have closets full of fancy toys or take expensive vacations. We went to the library, and we camped in an old-broken down pop-up camper, taking advantage of what was then free camping (or close to free) in the many federal and state parks in Maryland, Virginia, and DC, all relatively short drives in our old rickety used station wagons that not too infrequently would break down on the way (but Dad was a mechanic). The only cost was gas, when gas was cheap, for a relatively short drive of maybe 2 hours, with free hiking and swimming, etc. The four of us siblings each had A doll, and A board game, and a used bicycle badly in need of paint, but that was about it. But the nuns taught us to read and think and enjoy life and people, and we didn't really need more than that. Also, there was an unspoken but deeply-held community value that material things were really of no import (food, clothing, shelter, medicine, yes, but beyond the basics, no). We were infused with a sense of purpose in life, real meaning, and that was to love and care for everyone, and to enjoy God's creation. I went into the convent a few times, and was amazed at the cleanliness and simplicity of their lives. Each nun had a twin bed and a roommate; one set of linens. There was one chest of drawers with about 6 drawers in it for both sisters in each room, and a small closet. There was a communal dining room and kitchen. The sum total of their possessions was a few habits and a set of rosary beads, and that was it. And they were very happy, loving, and beautiful people who devoted their lives entirely to prayer and to helping others.

My parents were able to pay tuition, which was a good chunk of my Dad's earnings back then, because they paid almost nothing instead for clothing, because we wore uniforms. Other students got to wear regular street clothes the first few weeks and the last few weeks of school, but we didn't do that because it would have been too embarrassing. One of the major things i recall of my childhood was always wearing shoes that were literally rotting off my feet. And wearing my grandmother's hand-me-downs. That's not a typo. I wore my grandmother's used shorts, etc. And I was the oldest of four daughters, who got them when I outgrew them. It was very humiliating, but not one person ever made fun of me, not one, in all my years there. Nor did any child every make fun of any other child, or person, not ever. If any one dared, they would have been immediately scolded, sent to the principal's office, sent home, and had an enraged and actively-involved, caring parent do it all again, and then continuously educated by the entire community until they corrected their perspectives and their actions. Honestly, not once in 8 years of schooling did I ever witness any child being humiliated by any other child, in the classroom, or on the playground, or in the church, or during church-sponsored activities. Never. No one was ever abused in that school; no one. Billy got his hands cracked on the knuckles a time or two with what was called 'clickers', little wooden gadgets that were used to get our attention by making a clicking noise, but no harm done, he deserved it, frankly, and he used to laugh about getting cracked on the knuckles, too. He was the class clown. And never was any adult or public figure ever treated in any disrespectful or disparaging manner at all, ever. Such attitudes simply were not tolerated. Bullying? I never knew what that was, nor did any other student there. I also heard students referring to the children in the public school down the street as 'the publics', but it wasn't in any way derogatory. Instead, it was more a statement that these children lived in a completely different world than we did. And you know, they did. I found that out when I went to public school from 9-12 grade. That's where I saw bullying, and fights, and disrespect, and jealousy, and anger, and so many more unhappy ways of going about life.

I received an outstanding education by nuns who really, truly respected and cared about every single person on the planet. I graduated from public high school in the top 40 of 800 students (they refused to give us our specific rank for some odd reason), and that was because of the nuns. We never had multiple choice tests; every test was essay, or in younger grades, composing full sentences. We were taught to think, to analyze, to think for ourselves. By seventh grade, we were analyzing news stories every week, looking for truth or BS, sensationalism, or real journalism. They must have invested 70-80 hours a week every week in their teaching efforts, judging by my own one full year of teaching. Of all the people I've ever known, i admire those Sisters of Notre Dame the most. The only thing I can fault them for was that PE was just calisthenics twice a week. I was mortified to go to public school gym in 9th grade, without even knowing the rules of baseball or any of the sports I then had to 'participate' in, usually with no explanation at all of the basics, just thrown onto the field, red-faced. My Mom was handicapped, and my Dad had zero interest in sports, so I had no other exposure at all, except Mom carried on her father's tradition of watching the Redskins on TV.


Not only was I taught excellent academic skills by women who devoted their entire lives to our education and to prayer and charity work, I was also taught an excellent set of moral principles, and to be comfortable with myself for who I was as an individual. The latter lesson actually wasn't spelled out, rather, it was the logical sub-text of the message of truly respecting and loving each and every individual for their unique gifts.... when you feel and live that message, you learn to respect yourself, too. The nuns didn't just teach that; they lived it.


As an adult, many decades later, I managed restaurants for over a decade. I could always recognize the employees I hired who had gone to Catholic Schools within their first few days of work. I know, because I ended up getting a bit too close to crossing the line, and would ask them if they were educated in Catholic Schools. These were always the employees who never missed a day, were polite, hard-working, respectful, committed to doing the job to the best of their abilities... ideal employees. Time and again, I could figure it out almost instantly, without fail.

I wouldn't trade those 8 years for anything. I am sincerely sorry that your experience went so badly; that is tragic. Especially since not every Catholic School in that time period was anything at all like that, and yet, these are the only stories it seems the public ever hears.

[joshcryer]

122. No wonder you had to wear bread bags over your shoes.

I just now saw this post, it is very much like my having to wear garbage bags to Church.

Can't afford replacements, abuse and ridicule otherwise, or in light of.

I think your situation is a bit more unique than 99% of people who have had to experience that, most certainly more fucking unique than fucking Joni Ernst. Seriously. It may have hit home, but it's a completely different impoverished experience. Completely.

You really need to consider Joni's angle here. This isn't about keeping shoes from being fucked up at this point. 99% of poor people let their shoes go to shit and wear them or repair them or just suffer through it somehow (wearing used shoes from a charity or thrift store).

YOU WERE FORCED TO WEAR GOOD NICE QUALITY SHOES IN PRISTINE CONDITION ALWAYS.

That fucking sucks.

Sounds like Joni wore her shoes on the bus and to school with bags because they lived on farms and it just made them stay pretty longer since farms tend to be a mess. Really. That's all I gather from it.

[joshcryer]

123. To be fair...

...Joni's parents may not have wanted her to fuck up her shoes like Luminous Animal's parents didn't want to allow their child to go to school with fucked up shoes.

shrugging icon

[Tom Ripley]

142. +1000

[Gormy Cuss]

155. Most of the Roman Catholic kids in my neighborhood went to the parish school.

The tuition was close to zero for most of them because of family incomes. The real cost was in uniforms. It's probably why the school closed -- no one in that parish could foot the bill. Roman Catholic parish schools used to be very cheap because the church wanted the kids to have a Catholic education.

[lovemydog]

11. Thank you.

Thank you Luminous Animal.

[progressoid]

16. Thank you.

There are a million reasons to criticize her, this is not one of them.

[Skittles]

28. she's a republican and they do all they can to fuck the poor

so YES she can be criticized for pretending she STILL empathizes

[progressoid]

43. I'd like to think that's what is happening.

Some ARE criticizing her fake empathy, but most are laughing at the idea of putting bags on your feet.

A similar thing happened in 2004 when W ate a raw ear of corn in Iowa. Many DUers thought he was a bumpkin for doing it. I happen to know two other people who have eaten raw corn quite often. Both are intelligent, life long Democrats. One is my father.

[ND-Dem]

83. she was never poor so she has no capacity to empathize. she wants to end minimum wage,

that;s how much she empathizes.

she was never poor

[ND-Dem]

46. her family owned a farm and a construction business; they weren;t poor.

she went to college and graduate school, on time, and immediately stepped into local politics and passed on some tasty graft to dad.

I feel quite comfortable criticizing her for being a liar who wants to pretend she was poor to get votes, so she can rip up the safety net for people who actually ARE poor.

She deserves all the criticism she gets.

[Mariana]

58. To save for college, she worked the biscuit line at Hardee's.

Whoop-de-fucking-doo. Some of my friends in high school worked in similar jobs she did, but they weren't saving for college. They were buying food for their families with their earnings, because if they didn't, there wouldn't be enough food in the house.

[ND-Dem]

60. she was born in 1970, which means she started college about 1988/9. That was long past the

time where you could save much college money working the morning shift at Hardees. She also worked "construction with her father". I.e. she worked for dad's construction company. A much more likely source of college money. she probably answered phones and got paid better than minimum wage.

her family owned a farm and a construction company. she was never poor. but as soon as she got into government, she started out by channeling government contracts to dad. so we know she was always corrupt.

[progressoid]

61. I know all about her. She lives an hour down the road from me.

And she does deserve criticism. She and Steve King are the biggest embarrassments to the state.

It's just a little more than sad that the enlightened liberals of the internet can't find something better than bread bags to criticize.

[ND-Dem]

65. she's using the issue of poverty while planning to kneecap the poor. i think it's entirely worthy

of criticism and mockery.

no one is criticizing bread bags. they're criticizing Ernst for being a liar.

sorry, I ate butter and sugar sandwiches and wore hand me down clothes from people and lived in a basement with a single mother for awhile. though I've never considered myself poor, but working class -- I'm poor now, but I wasn't as a kid.

I'm not crying in my beer over this one; no one is mocking poor people.

[progressoid]

87. no one is criticizing bread bags?

Really?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026114952
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026114952
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026114909
etc

[ND-Dem]

91. I see people criticizing Ernst and making fun of ernst, Because she's a liar and deserves it.

Not because she;s poor, because she isn't and never has been.

[fishwax]

166. it isn't that they're making fun of her for being poor, but

There are posters making fun of things that poor people do because they (rightly) think Joni is full of shit and totally wrongheaded in her approach to poverty. Perhaps they don't realize that, although it's true that she is full of shit and totally wrongheaded in her approach to poverty, it is also true that kids wearing bags over their shoes actually happens.

I think all of (or at least the vast majority) of the posts on DU are meant to swipe at her hypocrisy. But when people say that nobody ever did that or that only idiots or parents who enjoy watching their kids suffer would do that, they're not making a very effective attack on Joni.

[marym625]

18. No one is mocking poverty

There was absolutely no point to her story. She offered no solution. She wasn't even saying that some other program caused her family to be poor.

The first thing she said was she wasn't going to use her privilege of responding to the State of the Union speech by responding to the speech.

In fact, if you check the post, most people here who grew up poor are extremely pissed at her blatant attempt to gain sympathy. That was the only purpose of her story.

[JDPriestly]

29. She was letting a lot of people who are poor know that she knows how they feel.

She doesn't have to offer solutions. She just has to reach out and tell people that she is like them. A lot of poor people are proud and believe they deserve better on their own merits. Republicans appeal to them. Most Democrats are compassionate and understand the pain and the loss of dignity that poverty bring. But a few are arrogant and just don't get it. Some think that the poor are stupid. Many Republicans think that people who are poor made "bad choices." As a Democrat, I think that people make poor choices all the time. Sometimes poor people make bad decisions. Sometimes, perhaps even more often, people who are not poor make bad decisions. I know trust fund bums who make horrible, horrible decisions. It does not affect their bottom lines. If you are poor and you make a bad decision, you may have to go without a meal or you may lose the roof over your head. If you have a trust fund, the trust administrator makes sure all your bills are paid.

Sorry. I don't think that Democrats should make fun of the bread bags.

[marym625]

33. I know what poor is

And I know what people think. I also think she's full of shit. When she was growing up, fewer than 6% of the town she lived in were below the poverty line. Her family had a prosperous farm and her dad had his own construction company.

She awarded her father a government contact while in office. She is a liar.

Besides that, the purpose of her speech was supposed to be a rebuttal to the State of the Union address, not a "I'm a survivor" speech. It was an insult to the Office of the President.

You want to look at the comments and posts as an affront to poor people, that's your prerogative. That's not what it is. As someone else said, she was channeling her best Michele Bachmann, or auditioning for the 700 club.

This is about her, not poor people.

[JDPriestly]

37. Of course she is a phony. You and I know that. But a lot of those who voted for her,

a lot of people who do not understand the message of the Democratic Party, a lot of people who fall for the Republican propaganda, who perhaps find little appealing aspects to it, don't know that. The story about the bread bags may be true or untrue about her, but it sure is true about a lot of poor people and even middle class people.

It is not something to make fun of. We are better than that.

[marym625]

42. I have not seen anyone making fun of the use of the bags

It was commonplace and we did it too. That's why I said it's about her. Hell, there's even an episode of Roseanne where Shelly Winters uses them. And people laugh.

This isn't about poor . This isn't about the bags. It's about her.

[ND-Dem]

105. all the more reason to spread the word that she's a BIG FAT LIAR who wants to end every

shred of the welfare state.

all the more reason not to let her get away with her fake stories. She was never poor; it's part of the public record.

I don't see why you and la think eggshells and kid gloves are the proper response. LA was poor as a child and has some kind of leftover trauma; well I'm poor now and may die homeless and I'm more worried about that.

[ND-Dem]

48. SHE WAS NEVER POOR A DAY IN HER LIFE. SHE WANTS TO FUCK POOR PEOPLE SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY.

[JDPriestly]

63. Agreed. But that does not prevent her from letting people know she knows how they feel.

[ND-Dem]

66. She doesn't know how they feel, because she was never poor a day in her life. Rather the opposite.

She's just a manipulative liar who'd like nothing better than to cut off all benefits from the poor, including earned social security benefits.

[JDPriestly]

69. So instead of talking about the bread bags, let's talk about why she is wrong on other issues.

That is why I am speaking against the ridicule and discussion about the bread bags. I think that talk is counterproductive.

She wants to do away with the Healthcare Act. We need to explain to people how that Act is helping so many people including some who wear breadbags on their feet. We should be talking about expanding the Healthcare Act to include a public option, not about whether Ernst wore breadbags on her feet.

[ND-Dem]

70. I've been saying in nearly every post, she's pretending to have been poor so she can SCREW the poor.

Why are you talking to me? Showing her to be a liar destroys the basis for her phony populism.

[hfojvt]

99. is her schtick really gonna play with most working class people?

I don't think that is how they are winning.

Obama won the under $50,000 vote by 60-38, and Romney won the over $100,000 vote by 44-54.

I don't see why Iowa 2014 would be any different. Republicans, I thought, usually won lower income voters by being anti-choice and pro gun.

Of course, they also run TV ads claiming that Republicans cut taxes and that Democrats will raise taxes.

[JDPriestly]

101. She mentioned being anti-choice in her speech. You are right.

The bread bags on her shoes is a way of making yet another connection with anti-choice, pro-gun people.

[Art_from_Ark]

113. If she actually knew how they feel,

she would not be a member of a party that constantly seeks to make the lives of poor people more miserable.

[ND-Dem]

86. SHE DOESN'T KNOW HOW THEY FEEL, SHE;S A FUCKING LIAR, WHICH IS WHAT EVERYONE

HERE IS SAYING.

Her breadbag story is bullshit, her whole speech was bullshit, She's a far right fascist criminal who channeled government contracts to her father as soon as she gained minor office and she;d like nothing better than to end the minimum wage and every other bit of the safety net.

No one made fun of bread bags; they made fun of joni Ernst, because she;s a dangerous joke.

[JDPriestly]

24. I never ate sugar sandwiches, but I did put plastic bags (I don't remember whether they were

bread bags or just what they were, around my feet inside my shoes in college. And I am offended that DUers are laughing about that. I bet a lot of people who had to do that at some point in their lives don't appreciate the jokes.

When you don't have money, you make do. A lot of my friends wear only second-hand clothes. I admire people who can live in dignity on very little money. I try to stand up for them. They deserve better.

[ND-Dem]

88. I wear second hand clothes and have all my life. You don't know what poor means apparently,

because just wearing second hand clothes doesn't mean poor: having no choice BUT to wear them means poor.

Lots of hipsters wear second hand; I used to. Now I'm forced to.

[JDPriestly]

102. Yes. I know. Did not mean to say that wearing second-hand clohes means poor.

In LA in particular, second-hand can mean originally very expensive and then still expensive. But I think you and I agree on this issue.

I remember the time I got to choose my first new dress, a new store-bought dress. You probably remember a moment like that too.

[KingCharlemagne]

34. I didn't see or hear Ms. Ernst's speech but I think what is being mocked here is not poor people per

se but rather Ms. Ernst's cloying and absurd false humility in trying to depict herself as having grown up poor when the reality is her childhood and adulthood were anything but.

The thing I most remember about growing up poor was not shitty clothing and shoes -- although I'm sure I had my share of both. No, what I remember is the old 'commodities program,' a precursor (I think) to the SNAP (AKA: Food Stamps) program. We'd make weekly trips to some warehouse in town and load up on bulk foods. There was a real irony in our being dairy farmers but still needing to take powdered dry milk. To this day, some of the foodstuffs we ate as commodities still cause me to gag at the thought of them, the powdered milk and pinto beans being only two I can think of right offhand.

[KingCharlemagne]

53. It's late and I'm tired. But I'm not getting your point(s) nor how they relate

to my response to the OP or to the OP itself.

Could you please elaborate? Am I missing something?

[joshcryer]

35. So, she could be making up stories for Republican advantage...

...and it's OK because some people have experienced that.

Joni is trying to romanticize being poor. If she did wear bags on her feet and all the other kids did, that's not a poor experience, that's a normal experience. Being poor is the kid with the tattered hand-me downs where putting bags over them would serve no purpose, with holes in the soles glued by superglue.

[ND-Dem]

51. Thank you. She can romanticize it BECAUSE SHE WAS NEVER POOR. Her family owned a farm

and a construction company. They sent her to college and graduate school.

and as soon as she got into political office, she passed her father some local graft.

she's a peach, she is.

[JaneyVee]

36. She wasn't poor.

[ND-Dem]

90. She;s always been part of the upper middle class AND KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT WHAT POOR

PEOPLE DO TO SURVIVE, WHAT THEY EAT OR WHAT THEY WEAR.

She's a liar who;d like nothing better but to sell them all into slavery and take every last shred of dignity they possess.

[rbrnmw]

96. sure we don't

[ND-Dem]

98. He says to the person who makes $600 a month working at a kind of sheltered workshop and can

no longer live on their own because of it.

Yeah, I know nothing about being poor, only you do.

So everybody shut up about joni Ernst, the woman who wants to take even my miserable pittance and chance to get back on my feet and end the lousy federal minimum wage which isn't enough to live on as it is.

Because someone might mistake mocking her lies for mocking poverty, and that's the worst thing that could happen; better to let her lies and fake populism and ulterior motives go unchallenged, that'll help the poor because at least Joni's phony empathy will make them feel better while she fucks them.

You don't care if she's a liar. I do, and I;m poor NOW, RIGHT NOW, and joni phony is DANGEROUS.

So I couldn't care less if you're offended that people think she;s full of shit,

[joshcryer]

120. Best wishes ND-Dem.

I told you my story and I saw yours here, come to Colorado, the opportunities are better here, and we take care of our citizens. Unless you have an affinity for ND, of course! You're good people, is all.

[Tom Ripley]

180. Well done!

[WinkyDink]

115. I gather you are speaking for yourself; it's best to leave it that way. YOU DON'T KNOW US.

[joshcryer]

119. Fair point.

But we know that poster was paying over $1,600 in deductibles a month in insurance in 2012 (and why she hates the ACA).

Anyone want to take a gander on how much I, or any other poor poster here is paying for health insurance?

I'll give you a huge guess, you can read that thread if you want the answer.

[Texasgal]

181. You serioulsy are dragging a post from

2012 in this conversation?

Geez. DU scares me sometimes.

[NanceGreggs]

39. I understand why you are upset.

But I don't believe that (most) posters are laughing at poor people, or what they do to survive.

I think the laughter is in response to two things:

(a) Tonight's GOP response was their opportunity to highlight what their party's plans are to address the nation's current challenges - from foreign policy to job creation, from the economy to immigration, from the protection of voting rights to the right to earn a living wage - and Ernst prattled on about bags on her shoes, a personal story that had no relevance to the SOTU - or to anything else.

(b) The hypocrisy of a GOP representative, speaking tonight on behalf of her entire party, talking about the plight of the poor - when her party would just as soon the current poor of the country wear bread-bags on their shoes, and be grateful for them - and stop looking for a "handout from the gov't" to be able to afford shoes.

I'm sorry you are upset. I truly am. But I DO understand why.

[Ken Burch]

80. Maybe they are true. But that doesn't make it cool for Ernst to use them

When she's dedicated to getting rid of most of the pitiful remnants of the social wage.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

94. People are mocking the typical "bags to riches" myth....

Republicans claim ANYONE can make it if you just stop being a victim and become a Republican.

And in some parts of the country it's true because the asshole running the local business won't hire you if he thinks you vote "Demoncrat".

[merrily]

107. Luminous Animal, I get it. I am sorry you and your family were poor. I am sorry your mom

bore the guilt of that. I am sorry for all families who lived or live under that burden. It's hard to describe and it's horrific.

I am glad you are better off now than you were then and wish the same for everyone. I hope you find peace about it and wish the same for everyone.

That is all.

[BootinUp]

112. Just catching up with the latest here

Generally I find its safe to take the opposite position of the Luminous one. lol.

[WinkyDink]

114. IDGADamn what her stories are; she's a dumb-sh*t Republican who now HATES the poor, the minimum-wage

earner, science, and, essentially, objective reality.

And that's just from reading her Wikipedia page.

[joshcryer]

121. FWIW, I just recalled, we did wear grocery bags over shoes to Church.

Probably on ignore due to the last encounter, but it did occur to me that happened on several occasions. But I do not necessarily ascribe that to being poor, as we were a family of boys, and boys are sometimes silly and will ruin their shoes, and our shoes had to be polished up really nice.

(But yes they were Salvation Army or Goodwill or charity used shoes, I never wore a pair of brand new clothes until I was in my mid 20s.)

[ucrdem]

126. Okay this is about mean nuns?

It's funny but I never had a mean nun and only actually knew of one. One of my sisters on the other hand is four years older and seemed to have a traumatizing nun every year for twelve years. Except one she liked, in fifth grade. The rest, all monsters. Go figure.

[Orrex]

128. We were so poor that we wore bread bags over our heads to protect our hats & scarves

Look, at this point everyone believes that you wore bread bags over your shoes to protect them. At this point, I don't believe that anyone is doubting your story.

Instead, people are saying "I grew up poor and never knew anyone who did that."

My experience is the same. Never once in all my life have I seen even one person--not even homeless people--wearing bread bags over their shoes. I don't doubt that you did so. I'm simply saying that I've never seen it.

Your experience is your own, and others' experiences are theirs. It doesn't mean that either is lying.


However, Joni's story doesn't ring true, especially given Republicans' decades-long love for the apocryphal tale, and people are calling her out for it.

[Tom Ripley]

143. I really did laugh out loud

[Orrex]

153. Glad to give you a giggle

[Vinca]

132. The difference with Joni is . . .

you can buy a whole lot of bread bags with a $450,000 farm subsidy. She's full of BS. (P.S. We had mayonnaise sandwiches.)

[Nye Bevan]

133. Every so often the average demographics of DU become pretty obvious.

The sneering about this is indeed embarrassing.

[Saucepan of Kerbango]

134. +1000

I grew up exactly like this.

[Starry Messenger]

135. My mother grew up so poor that she and her sisters shared shoes

for the day. She emailed me right after Joni's speech, incensed at Ernst taking on the mantle of victimhood, and yeah, she mocked the bread-bags.

I don't think people are mocking poverty, just Joni trying to use the "both ways uphill" trope to seem relatable to teh commoners.

[deutsey]

136. I didn't see her response

Did she give any concrete solutions to helping poor people now?

I also haven't been reading DU, so I don't know what's being posted in reaction to her, but I am also sensitive to bashing the poor (like some GOP numbnut in Iowa supposedly did recently when he called the poor "genetically inferior&quot .

I grew up poor (my mom had me when she was 14 and dropped out of high school to work as a waitress for the first 10 years of my life). I was also the first to go to college in my family (not easy with Reagan cutting student aid).

I made a lot of progress after college, but I find myself struggling more and more to stay above water.

Did this person just use examples of growing up poor to make it look like the GOP cares about people in poverty today, or did she offer viable solutions to alleviating poverty (caused, in large part, by the policies of her party and its affluent supporters)?

[Avalux]

138. So why exactly, do you think Joni told that story?

She didn't tell it because she genuinely cares about poor people and what they have to do to survive. She didn't tell it because she's going to do whatever she can to put forth legislation that will help them. NO.

Joni Ernst told that story to prop herself up as a sympathetic character, to make it seem as if she cares. That sheep pelt wasn't big enough to cover her big sharp teeth though. It was insulting.

DU is pointing out Joni's hypocrisy. To prove my point:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026115922

[Tom Ripley]

140. I'm waiting for her "we had to wear barrels" story

[FSogol]

145. Barrels? Your family was lucky enough to have barrels?

[Tom Ripley]

146. Well, they were secondhand barrels...

and we had to wear dry cleaning bags over them

[Arkansas Granny]

151. I know where you're coming from. If people don't grow up that poor, they don't know what those who

live in those circumstances will do and have to do in order to survive. I don't feel that posters are mocking you as much as they are disbelieving that Joni Ernst ever lived that way, but it's pretty obvious that some here just don't know what it's like.

I was raised in rural SW Missouri in the 50's. Some of our neighbors had no electricity, some lived on dirt floors and outhouses were the norm. Most kids got up in the morning and did chores before breakfast and going to school. Nearly everyone in our one room schoolhouse wore hand me down clothes and were proud to get "new" things when family, friends and neighbors outgrew them.

And, yes, some kids wore bread bags on their feet, if they were lucky enough to get them before they found another household use (they were a novelty and people used them for a lot of things). Some wore them over their socks inside their shoes and others wore them over their shoes to substitute for rain boots. Some would wear them on their hands with a pair of socks over them to serve as makeshift mittens.

A lot of the kids I went to school with brought their lunch in brown paper bags or old lard cans. A real metal lunchbox was a luxury item, especially if it had pictures of Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy. Before we had a school lunch program, some lunches consisted of a couple of biscuits leftover from breakfast that were smeared with a little syrup or molasses and, on a good day, a couple slices of cold bacon. They went home to a supper of beans and potatoes. Having meat on the table was a treat and the only fresh vegetables they had came from the family garden.

I don't know if Joni Ernst ever lived in this kind of poverty or not, but the stories are true. If she lied about it, then shame on her, but to deny that these things never happened is to ignore the reality of living at subsistence level or below.

[cyberswede]

156. Good post.

Thank you for posting. My parents grew up during the Depression (my father in a children's home), and they remained frugal, even as the family circumstances improved over the years.

We wore bread bags over our socks inside our boots as an extra water-resistant layer.

My mother didn't buy baggies or zip-lock bags until at least the 1990s - she used bread bags for everything. She still saves them.

She reused everything. Old worn out socks became cuffs to lengthen the sleeves of winter coats, to get another year's wear of them - stuff like that.

[stevenleser]

169. The question is, what does any of that matter in terms of Joni Ernst's political policies and impact

Everything about her policies helps the 1% at the expense of the 99%. At best she has turned her back on people in conditions similar to the ones she grew up in. That's the best case scenario for her. The worst case is she is a liar who looked up what poverty was like (or had her staff look up what poverty was like around the time she grew up) and put it into her speech to give cover to right wing policies that will hurt the poor and middle class.

Either way, the ultimate impact is the same, and it makes what she said despicable from either angle.

[Long Drive]

179. PERFECT!

Spot on, especially this:


"Either way, the ultimate impact is the same, and it makes what she said despicable from either angle."

Thanks Steven.

[alarimer]

152. The difference is, her stories are lies.

During the campaign, most of those stories were also lies.

[SunSeeker]

164. Exactly. I don't think people would be laughing if an actual poor person said this.

But she's not really poor. Ernst ' s disgusting attempt at manipulation deserves ridicule.

[DawgHouse]

167. We did it at my house too but I don't remember being poor.

I guess I think of "poor" as being hungry, which we never were. Mom was frugal and recycled everything. I look back now and realize they were just the kind of people who never wasted, they recycled before recycling became the norm.

First time I had a sugar and butter sandwich was at my friend's house. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. We were a white bread, bologna and miracle whip household

[stevenleser]

168. Her track record with the truth is not good according to politifact

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/joni-ernst/

So we have

1. Her track record with the truth is not good

2. The available evidence is that her family was not poor

3. She supports economic and social policies that help the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class

4. She downplayed how crazy right wing she was during the election and skated through on the general Republican wave.

and what? We're supposed to give her a pass and not criticize her speech because she spouted things that sound like things that poor people did at that time? This is the internet age, I can look up what poor people did 200 years ago and put together a speech that makes it sound like I was there doing those things.

[Stellar]

171. We had some of the same experiences in my family and I'm sure a lot of us

know people like that if they have not experienced it first hand. That's nothing new.

It's just strange seeing Republic0ns becoming compassionate after all these years of income stagnation and no health care. That they actually know of these issues and they (and 47% Mitt) are trying to run on it in 2016. whoop-de-dooo!

[DawgHouse]

173. I'll have to go back and look at the transcript

but I got the impression that she wasn't claiming poverty as much as they were self-reliant and thrifty. What she described didn't sound like poor to me.

Part of the transcript is here, probably should read the whole thing again:
As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm. I worked construction with my dad. To save for college, I worked the morning biscuit line at Hardees. (She's not saying she was poor. Working on the family farm, job at Hardees, pretty middle American IMO.)

We were raised to live simply, not to waste. It was a lesson my mother taught me every rainy morning. You see, growing up, I had only one good pair of shoes. So on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them to keep them dry. (Mom was practical and wasted nothing. I don't think only one pair of good shoes makes you poor. Try NO shoes.)

But I was never embarrassed. Because the school bus would be filled with rows and rows of young Iowans with bread bags slipped over their feet.

Our parents may not have had much, but they worked hard for what they did have. (They had all they needed. Iowans are thrifty. Parents worked hard. I think that's what she is saying. Again JMHO)

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/gop-response-transcript-joni-ernst-gop-response-114423.html#ixzz3PTNtboL7

And yeah, I agree that the making fun of poor people for doing what they have to do to stay warm and dry is horrible. But I'm not so sure that she claimed that they were so poor they wore bread bags. It's her attempt to show the folksy, homegrown thriftiness that mid-westerners are known for. Basically she's a tighten your belt, and pull yourselves up by your bootstraps kind of person. She is clueless about what real poverty is and is saying that people can and should make it on their own.

[NCTraveler]

178. Some of the responses directed at you are unfair.

Your upbringing is a huge part of what has made you who you are today. For that I am thankful. For who you are today and your willingness to openly share.