Unknown Buddhist

Senator Joni Ernst delivered the Republican Party’s official response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, just days after being sworn in for the first time as a member of the august body.

The 44-year-old combat veteran and mother who grew up on an Iowa farm, was a rural county auditor just a few years ago came across like the Viagra guy on TV – totally plagued by a false smile and stupid stories. Her rhetoric darted on key GOP responses – repeal the Affordable Care Act, reduce government spending, support the troops, approve the Keystone pipeline and wear bread bags on your shoes.

Lizz Winstead’s tweet was hilarious, “Joni Ernst just lost the gluten intolerant people watching who are like, I can’t eat bread! How do I keep my poor feet dry!”

Ernst reiterated common GOP themes without providing any substance. Her celeb-cause to crush government overspending probably doesn’t apply to the Ernst family farm having benefited from over $460,000 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2006.

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 benefited from $367,141 in federal agricultural aid, with over $250,000 geared toward corn subsidies while the brothers’ late grandfather received $57,479 from Washington—again, mostly corn subsidies—between 1995 and 2001.

As a sign of doing what’s right, I’m sure she’s giving all that back.

Terrorism was an interesting point.

“Some of it will occur where I stand tonight, in the Armed Services Committee room. This is where I’ll join committee colleagues — Republicans and Democrats — to discuss ways to support our exceptional military and its mission. This is where we’ll debate strategies to confront terrorism and the threats posed by Al Qaeda, ISIL, and those radicalized by them.”

“The forces of violence and oppression don’t care about the innocent. We need a comprehensive plan to defeat them.”

Debate is one thing. Action is another. For a while last night I presumed she’d march to the Middle East sand dunes and kick ISIL’s ass with the those stiletto Camo Heels she wore. But she promised debate, not action. Real change is hard.

Then there’s Boehner. He looked like man having a colonoscopy. In a video released hours before Obama’s speech, the Ohio Republican obliquely criticized the president for pursuing big-government policies. ”Tonight isn’t about the president’s legacy,” Boehner, dressed in a shirt and tie, says in the video, looking straight at the camera. “It’s about the people’s priorities. Making government bigger isn’t going to help the middle class. More growth and more opportunity will help the middle class, and those are the Republican priorities.”

As a Buddhist, social action is simply concerned with relieving suffering; ultimately, in creating social conditions which will favor the ending of suffering through the individual achievement of transcendent wisdom. Fundamental questions of social action cannot aren’t so logical or rational. We have complicated issues – and neither of these issues will ever be solved by repeated political rhetoric.

I was hoping the GOP would offer something more enlightening. In response, America received the same shit we’ve been eating for the last six years. In the end, one blogger got it right, “Ernst looked like a flight attendant describing all the ways we’re about to die.”

I guess I’ll stock up on a few bread bags.