My late mother grew up on a farm in Clinton county Iowa during the depression.

[Itchinjim]

To say they were poor is a huge understatement. They were literally dirt poor, they didn't even own the land my grandfather farmed. Mom would talk of those times of the early depression and the fear and uncertainty everyone felt. At times they didn't know if they would eat on any given day. One of her earliest memories is of grandpa talking to his landlord about whether or not the bank was going to foreclose on his land, meaning grandpa would lose his farm too. This was in 1932, and the landlord said to grandpa , "Well, maybe Mr. Roosevelt can work things out" As we all know, Mr. Roosevelt and "big government" did work things out. Thanks to Mr. Roosevelt, grandpa's landlord kept his land, and grandpa was able to eventually buy the land he farmed and raise his family, and mom and her siblings didn't starve amidst the most fertile farmland in the world, and her brothers were able to go off to war and helped defeat Hitler and Tojo. Mom went on to nursing school, got married and raised eight children on my dad's union wage.

My point is that none of this would have been possible without government programs and regulations. Everything a fellow Iowan, Joni Ernst, is against. I can almost guarantee that Joni's grandparents were in the same dire situation and benefited from 'big government" as all Iowa farmers did. It sickens me that my state is represented by a person who is so self deluded that she hates the government that kept her family on their land and kept her parents and grandparents from starving and is probably responsible for her very existence .

Joni, you talk of bread bags on shoes as if it is a hardship. In summer, my mom went without shoes, and grandma would make her family's clothes out of seed sacks. You talk derisively of "big government", Well my forebearers suffered under the "free" markets and unfettered capitalism and survived, as did yours, because government intervened. They have also thrived under the "big government" programs and regulations that you and way to many Iowa farmers hate.

Joni, please don't compare bread bags on your shoes to what my mom and grandparents went through, you may think you had it tough, but believe me without the government you hate, you would have it much, much, much worse.

[Cha]

1. Joni Baloney's a Phoney, Itchinjim.. thank you for telling your Parents' story of what it was like

to be really poor back in those days.

[panader0]

2. Recommended

[hifiguy]

3. Kick 'n' Rec!

[yankeepants]

4. Perfect. This is it. Truth. NT

[stage left]

5. Kick and Rec.

[FSogol]

6. K&R. n/t

[chervilant]

7. K&R

I wish this woman would get a clue...

[elleng]

8. Thanks, itchinjim.

Please send this to joni, and local and not so local Iowa papers.

[crazylikafox]

10. I second that! Please send this to Joni and the papers!

It's too good a rant to waste on DU!

[Pacifist Patriot]

20. I third that!

[Enthusiast]

26. +1!

[Fla Dem]

31. I agree with all who have said you need to send this to JE and all the newspapers in Iowa. It's

brilliant and from the heart.

[2naSalit]

51. Me too!

It's brilliant and from the heart because that is what actually happened as opposed to some BS taking point flame bait that we were subjected to the other night.

[angrychair]

53. I agree

Spread this far and wide. Excellent wtiting!

[LeftOfWest]

9. Thank you Itchinjim for this

So well said. My Mom and her parents, same story just a different state.

Recommended.

[beam me up scottie]

11. K&R

For Perspective.

[demigoddess]

12. amen, my story is much like yours

though a few counties away in MO. Also I grew up as a military brat and there were times we weren't too flush also. When we came back from Europe in 1958 all our household goods fit into 2 footlockers and a few suitcases. That summer my dad hunted squirrels or rabbits to keep us fed until the paycheck came. And later though my dad had over 10 years in the military, he used his leave time to work construction for a little extra money. Other than that I don't remember my dad taking his leave time. And he retired at 20 years.

[kairos12]

13. +1000

I don't buy The Grapes of Breadbags.

[PatrickforO]

24. Is that like the wrath of grapes? Or the breadbags of wrath?

Or maybe the hubris of ingratitude? That Ernst is a mess.

[ReRe]

14. K&R

Same story as all our parents/grandparents. I hope you have forwarded that directly to her, or just "open-letter" LTE it to local and state newspapers, just to be sure she and everyone else sees it.

[WillyT]

15. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[JDPriestly]

16. Thanks. I have a very, very similar story. Different county. Thanks.

My mother is living and still reveres and adores FDR. He saved America as far as my mother is concerned.

[calimary]

17. Kicking this, too.

Wonder if her family pig farm enjoyed pigging out at the farm subsidy trough?

[ND-Dem]

19. about $40K a year from that government sponsored gig

[ND-Dem]

18. k&r

joni's family got about $40K a year in government farm subsidies themselves--1995 to 2006 on the record. (likely more as they've had the farm longer than that)

[rurallib]

21. Don't know a lot about my parents in the depression

They never talked about it much. Both were orphans raised by relatives.

But I did learn one thing when I was young - don't you dare say a word against FDR.
They never talked politics, but you could tell they revered FDR whenever his name came up.

[dflprincess]

22. My uncle (married to my mom's sister) once sat quietly while my other uncle (mom's brother)

got into a pretty heated debate - none of us ever understood how mother's brother turned into such a nasty conservative.

Finally, uncle 1 spoke up and said "I always vote for the Democrats because my dad said we would have lost our farm if it wasn't for FDR."

Which prompted my aunt to remind uncle 2 that their dad had had jobs with the PWA (not the WPA) and they had food on their table because of Roosevelt.

It shut uncle #2 up, but didn't change his lousy attitude.

[ladyVet]

29. FDR was a god.

No one better talk bad about him around my mother. My mother loved JFK and Bobbie. I remember her crying when the news was talking about RFK being killed.

My mother's family wasn't rich, but they had some land (I'd guess it was close to three acres) and a house. They raised cows, pigs, goats and chickens, put in a huge garden, and had some fruit trees (I remember a plum and a cherry tree, but there may have been apple trees too) and a grape vine. My grandfather was lucky to have a textile mill job, but it had to stretch to take care of seven kids.

Grandpa often told his children that Democrats cared about poor people, but Republicans only cared about the rich -- nothing changed there, except some Ds bow to their corporate masters now. He would round up people in the area and take them to vote if they didn't have a way. White, black, Democrat or Republican, he didn't care just so long as they voted.

I dearly wish I could have had more time with my Grandpa. He died when I was nine, and I never got to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. He was a big, quiet man in his later years. I don't know what his childhood was like, but I imagine it wasn't so great: one of his favorite things was to kill a possum and have my grandmother cook it. Nobody else would touch it, but he loved it.

[DesertDiamond]

23. My mother too lived through the Great Depression and she and her parents and two siblings

lived in a one-room, bare wood house with a wood stove. Sometimes other displaced relatives lived with them. They picked fruit to survive and many times went hungry a lot. She told me that once they went two months where the only food they had was the bark off the trees. Then Mr. Roosevelt's programs began and they were given 40 acres that surrounded that little one-room house, and some cattle and some olive saplings so that they could have food and an income and get on their feet. They were able to build a little two-bedroom cinderblock house with electricity, indoor plumbing, two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom large enough not only for a toilet and a bathtub but, eventually, a washing machine and dryer.

In short, without those government programs they might not have survived. Instead, the story had a happy ending. Governments are supposed to exist for the wellbeing of its people. Call it by any name you want, but that is its sole purpose.

[Enthusiast]

25. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

Can someone please investigate Joni Ernst's claim of extreme poverty? It sounds contrived. While you're at it check to see if her family was on the government dole in some form or other.

I'm not against someone receiving food stamps, welfare or whatever. I'm against the hypocrisy which seems to have run wild in the Republican Party.

[niyad]

34. here:

Welfare For Me, Not For Thee: Joni Ernst Edition...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026116515
http://www.readingisforsnobs.com/2015/01/welfare-for-me-not-for-thee-joni-ernst.html

The truth about her family’s farm roots and living within one’s means, however, is more complex. Relatives of Ernst (née: Culver), based in Red Oak, Iowa (population: 5,568) have received over $460,000 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009. Ernst’s father, Richard Culver, was given $14,705 in conservation payments and $23,690 in commodity subsidies by the federal government–with all but twelve dollars allocated for corn support. Richard’s brother, Dallas Culver, benefited from $367,141 in federal agricultural aid, with over $250,000 geared toward corn subsidies. And the brothers’ late grandfather Harold Culver received $57,479 from Washington—again, mostly corn subsidies—between 1995 and 2001. He passed away in January 2003.

more at link...

[Enthusiast]

38. There ya go. I knew it. nt

[onecent]

27. Well said!!!!!!!

[Thespian2]

28. K & R

depend on Repugs to elect the worst of the worst.

[Art_from_Ark]

30. In 1932, there was a farmers' strike that began in Iowa

I have a newspaper from August of that year which has a front-page article describing how farmers had blockaded roads leading into Sioux City to protest low prices, and Federal troops were called up to "maintain order". The strike spread to other states.

[mountain grammy]

32. Thank you, great post...

Joni is a phony!

[ashling]

33. Thanks for this post

kicked and recommended

[jwirr]

35. Thank you. That is the history of some of my Iowa families also. There is another story though

that most of us do not know. I know because my dad was one of the victims and another part of the family got rich by using greed.

What I am talking about is that all of us were in the same depressions. But not all of us suffered. My dad did not like our neighbor or that other side of our family and I could never understand why until he told me about all the young men in the neighborhood who worked for him on his farm for $1.00 a day because they had no choice. Even in the 60s when he told me that story all of those young men were still the poor in the area. They were trying but had not gotten ahead.

At least not like the rich neighbor and the other side of our. Those boys had worked his farm and he prospered - not because he was a better farmer but because he took advantage of their poverty. Today he is one of the richest - at least his three sons are - because of his greed. Not because he earned it.

There were also stories that showed the opposite. Neighbors who went to a farm sale and bought it back for the owner who was going broke. And then there was our rich neighbor and family member - he went to those sales and bought the land for himself. Acquiring as much as he could at the desperation prices that were the result of the depression.

There were two stories to the depression. And the 1980s farm poverty Joni is talking about can in no way compare. Wonder if her family voted for Reagan? It was his farm policies that made her poor.

[MatthewStLouis]

36. Sadly, many of the older generation that can remember

what FDR did for the country are of advanced age. And many of their children are spoiled brats of the me me me generation who grew up with all the benefits of the unions and progressive policies without a real understanding of or appreciation for them.

I hate to think that it might take another Great Depression to wake people up, but that's what it feels like sometimes...

And as for Joni Ernst, she's just another whiny teapublican who can't stop complaining about paying her fair share in taxes while at the same time is happy to partake of any subsidies or other special favors our government (or corporate lobbyists) might give her.

[TheNutcracker]

37. Kick!

[wendylaroux]

39. Excellent post!!!!

Sounds exactly like my parents childhood.

[cordelia]

40. K&R

[SidDithers]

41. Kick...nt

Sid

[tecelote]

42. Well said!

I wish you were a mainstream journalist.

But, then, they don't really exist anymore.

[pacalo]

43. This needs to be seen by Joni Ernst!

[Siwsan]

44. Reading this actually gave me chills

This is absolutely one of my favorite posts, ever, on DU.

[inanna]

46. I have noticed how little the current generation of young people

know about The Great Depression. It's not really their fault - and there are exceptions, of course. My daughter was raised knowing about that event in history, because I taught her about it: on my own, at home.

She is an adult now. Not long ago she told me she was a bit distressed over how the history of The Depression was not being taught in schools very widely and that she felt very strongly that it should be.

There are obviously those young people who learn about this event somehow, then go on to pursue more research on their own. But I wonder....how many?

Those were horrible times. Most of us alive today (at least here in the west) have never experienced that kind of fear from want; have never walked around with our bellies stuck to our back bones.

I just wish they'd include more time teaching about The Depression in the school history curriculum.

And I'd also like to add my voice to the chorus with a sincere thank you to the OP for starting this thread.

[tulsakatz]

45. great comment!

FDR did a lot of great things back then. If you haven't seen it yet, watch Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl. It doesn't talk about Iowa much but it describes the depression & how it was so difficult for much of the country. For example, FDR created the WPA which put men to work building roads & other projects. And of course, that was also criticized as another big govt thing. One woman commented that more than the money, the WPA gave men the dignity of work by doing something useful to help feed their families.

And because it was obvious that FDR was trying to help them, even some republicans voted for him!

I don't think Ernst was as poor as she pretends to be....like all republicans, she's just trying to use it for political advantage!

[FSogol]

47. Already rec'ed, but here is another kick. n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

48. +1 ...

I have never understood why/how, in this internet age, a public figure would mis-represent their past, as one of dire poverty?

I'm pretty certain there are people that knew Joni, in her youth ... and that person, out of celebrity-seeking or striking back at the "mean girl" Joni was sure to have been, will eventually appear to give lie to her story(ies).

[Tsiyu]

49. K&R

"Now, Joni, can you think of anything besides pigs' testicles that made life hard for you? Surely you have an anecdote about touching poverty in some ways."

Joni thinks this over a few weeks and finally remembers the bread bags. It's all she has because she never went hungry, she always had a roof over her head.

43% of this nation's homeless are working people. Her bread bag story compared to their struggles is disgusting.

But her delivery was so robotic and forced, I had to laugh at the cluelessness of Repukes and then turn it off or I was gonna throw up.

[LuckyLib]

50. My uncle, a conservative businessman in Iowa, was raised in extreme

poverty. Once he did well, eventually very well, he would slam down those Iowa small town Republicans who decried "government in our lives." He used to say they were doing this while drinking coffee, since during winter their day consisted of sauntering down to the mailbox to get those big government farm subsidy checks, then heading to town to chat with neighbors.

[William769]

52. Kick & highly recommended.