Wheeler Dealer comix
Skyler Wheeler (R-Orange City) might just be out looking for a tattoo parlor. I’m thinking he’ll opt for some cool Republican ink. Why?
How else to proclaim that he’s been “jumped into” the right-wing gang that currently controls Iowa’s legislature.
For those of you not familiar with the street gang parlance, new members of a gang, (whether street or legislative), don’t gain admittance to the organization until they prove their willingness to do what must be done to further the gang’s interests. Sometimes new prospects have to take a beating from more senior members of the gang. That’s what’s known as getting ‘jumped’ in.
Rep. Wheeler, a transplant from Washington State 5 years ago, was looking for a way to show party leaders his willingness to do what must be done. Instead of taking a beating, Wheeler decided to take down Nicole Hannah-Jones, a daughter of Waterloo, and the editor of the Pulitzer Prize winning 1619 Project.
Skyler was chosen as the avatar to proclaim that (according to the gang) She got out of line and had to be taken down.
Thankfully, in real time, Wheeler’s intellectual sleight-of-hand was more than neutralized by this blast of truth from Todd Dorman over at the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Rep. Wheeler, in yet another offering to the gang this week, dredged up an “us vs, them” idea from the bottom of the culture war barrel.
My question: Has Wheeler yet earned the ‘street cred’ to be fully “jumped into" the Republican gang? OG Steve Holt (R-Hull) and Wheeler both representing Sioux County, appear to be on the same page which should be indication that young Skyler has “made his bones” and might now be thought of as a “made man” up there under the dome.
My question…:
Has Rep. Wheeler ever offered to meet with or sit down with Nicole Hannah-Jones to understand her point of view to better discern the bedrock issues of education and truth at stake?
Has he ever met with the families of the youth he so blithely offers nothing but more shame, silence and erasure (the same kind of cultural erasure he advocates concerning African American history) see: divisive concepts.
Saturday morning, a mordant chuckle arose as I read the front page of Friday’s DM Register. The Valentine’s Day Issue proclaimed LOVE IS IN THE AIR across four columns.
Love wasn’t the only thing in the air as Wheeler, the un-cupid, introduced House Study Bill 84 making sure that no Iowa high school student of LGBTQ+ status would ever feel respected let alone loved in their home state.
So it’s a two-fer. Wheeler begins his journey for ‘cred’ in 2021 with vacuous critique and disrespect of the work of Nicole Hannah-Jones. This week he offered up House Study Bill 84, a literal back-of-the-hand to young Iowans and their families whose dignity and humanity he should be respectful of.
I hope Rep. Wheeler finds a fitting place to display the tattoo depicting his rising status as a young tough in the Republican gang. (Maybe Trump on his rump?!)
…just in case you’re wondering about how we non-republicans got into the crisis we now find ourselves, rewind the tape back to 2017…
I think we’d all better, be better =-)
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
Below is a list of the members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please support their work by sharing and subscribing. Paid subscribers are invited to attend real-time events and occasional Zoom calls among our writers. Your support keeps this reader-only supported service going.
IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE
The Roster of Writers
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Dartanyan Brown, My Integrated Life, Des Moines
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup
Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Daniel Finney, Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia
Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC
Dana James: Black Iowa News, Iowa
Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Iowa City
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters from Iowans, Iowa
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Steve Semken, The Pulse of a Heartland Publisher, North Liberty
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Jason Walsmith, The Racontourist, Earlham
Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
With each passing day, I see or read about the lows of the former Republican Party … an agenda of fueling hate and division much greater than the cringeworthy McCarthy era. A tsunami of opposition must grow. Relentlessly. Written, spoken, whispered, drawn, set to music … doesn’t matter.
Wheeler already has “Trump on his rump.”
Thanks for reports from the front.
Montana demonstration at Capital today was very cool. Organized by the Federal and Public Employees Union but with a lot of “Leash the Doge” signs. Afterwards whoever could fit in the rotunda could sit down with legislators at lunch and voice their concerns. I'd say 200 people went in. Not sure I can hold my temper with the Goptiles today so I went home.
Not even close to the size of the Womens' March 8 years ago but meaningful size.
Particularly good speech by a senior at Helena High who’s going to Peabody Conservatory next year. Montana’s education budget has been severely slashed and of course, the department taking the hardest hit is music.