I’ll start by asking a question:

Why do Republicans want so many of us to die?

If I’m a Democratic politician, or voter, or even a loudmouth columnist, this is the only question I am asking repeatedly until the polls open in every election in America, before our sickly dictator uses our military in an attempt to end voting for good.

We are in a life-or-death situation in America right now, and if you don’t believe me, why not let Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst tell it. In May, Ernst defended Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Death Bill and his elimination of life-saving Medicaid at a town hall meeting by belittling her constituents and telling them: “WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.”

It is actually the most honest thing Ernst has ever said during her appalling reign of terror, which makes it a real irony that it also ushered in the death of her political career.

Ernst made it clear on Friday she will not seek a third term, because running on the campaign slogan, “We are all going to die,” might even be a bridge too far for some of the Trump cultists in the state, who somehow still believe they are immune to things like measles, and the truth.

I will touch on this in a minute when I’m officially done with Iowa — er, like Ernst apparently is.

The death of Ernst’s political career means another crucial U.S. Senate seat is in play, which suddenly gives life to the possibility that Democrats could pull an inside straight and gain control of the Senate next year.

It’s a long shot, sure, but already, Maine and North Carolina look ripe for the flipping, and if Democrats can get out of their own way, and demand answers to crucial questions like, why Republicans want so many of us dead, they could swipe the Senate from Trump’s rotting hands.

November 2026, is a long way off, but Democrats continued to prove they are capable of moving the political needle in Red States like Iowa Tuesday night when Catelin Drey handily defeated Republican Christopher Prosch in a district Trump won big last year.

Drey’s loud win in that state senate race smashed Republicans’ supermajority, which means their Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, will no longer be able to simply wave her magic wand to crush the hopes and dreams of Iowans. She will now actually have to legislate in something resembling a bipartisan environment.

And Drey’s win wasn’t a one-off, because Democrats in the Hawkeye State also picked off another state Senate seat in a January special election, as well as a House seat in an April special.

That’s a lot of winning in a state that’s all but been lost to Democrats since Barack Obama won it for a second time in 2012, and their Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams was only too happy to spike the football Tuesday night:

“As Trump and Republicans wreck the economy and erode democracy with power-grabbing schemes, Democrats’ special election wins should send a flashing warning to the GOP: voters are rejecting the failing MAGA agenda and leaving Republican candidates in the dust.”

The good times kept rolling in the Upper Midwest when word came out Friday that Conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley would not seek reelection next April, citing "conservative failures" for her decision.

Now “conservative failures” takes in a lot of territory, so I’ll surmise in this instance she’s talking about liberals’ convincing victories in four of past five Supreme Court races in the Cheese State, dating to 2018.

This has been an incredible run, especially when you consider that liberals had not controlled that crucial chamber for decades, and now will lead it through at least 2028.

If they can pick off Bradley’s open seat next April, they will own a stunning a 5-2 advantage on that court. Judge Chris Taylor’s the liberal running for that slot, and it can never be too early to support her.

Which takes us to Iowa’s rooftop of Minnesota, where the news went from good on Tuesday night to horrific on Wednesday morning, and gets me back to wondering why despite Ernst’s prediction that “we are all going to die,” Republicans are so damn eager to make that happen.

On Wednesday, another man with another gun slaughtered two children and wounded 17 people, mostly children, in a church attended by Catholic school children in Minneapolis.

The party of death actually outdid themselves with their response to this sickening tragedy by once again asking America to pray for these children, who were shot in a church while doing just that.

Haven’t we finally had enough this Republican carnage?

Are we finally done listening to a party that is now telling us out loud that “we are all going to die” and then doing whatever they can to make that happen?

Are we finally done with people like Captain Death himself, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently doing more to intentionally wipe out people than any man since Adolph Hitler?

As I type this, Kennedy is continuing his gruesome crusade to end our vaccine program in America as we know it, which, according to The World Health Organization, has saved more than 150 million lives and reduced infant deaths by 40 percent.

Can you read that again? Are we really trying to make sense of this, as if it’s in the vicinity of anything resembling normal?

While Captain Death, and his brain worms, and his drug addictions, and woman-abusing and dead animal fetishes, was in his laboratory scheming to kill millions this week, he was also eliminating key public servants who have given their professional lives to protect us.

Just this week, Susan Monarez, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was forced out of her job by Captain Death less than one month into her job for refusing to go along with this maniac’s plans to end us.

Monarez, who is still fighting the dismissal, while she fights for our lives, had her lawyers release this statement:

"When she (Monarez) refused to rubber-stamp unscientific reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she's been targeted."

Four other leading officials at the CDC resigned this week because they, too, had come under extreme pressure from the sickening, Kennedy. One of those officials said Kennedy’s team asked him to “change studies that have been settled in the past” to fit Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views.

Yep, “change studies.” Just make stuff it. I mean, it’s only people’s lives we are talking about …

And here’s where I remind you that the only reason the grotesque Kennedy is even in this job in the first place is … you guessed it … Republicans.

Republicans confirmed this ghoul, despite the fact he claimed COVID-19 vaccines are “the deadliest ever,” when the facts are they saved tens of millions of lives.

So I’ll ask one more time: Why do Republicans want so many of us to die?

I suggest we all keep asking this crucial question, and demanding answers while we are still around to do it.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.