Shanen Ebersole calls the rolling hills of southwest Iowa her happy place, where time with the grazing cows is her way to relax and reset.
“I’ll just sit here with my cows and take a breath, and everything goes back to the way it should be.”
Cattle farming has been Ebersole’s passion and profession for 25 years and, like most people you meet in rural Iowa, she describes herself as a conservative and two-time Donald Trump voter.
“I love what he did for small business,” Ebersole said in an interview this week. “I love what he did for agriculture. I wish he could have done it a bit quieter.”
The loud part is why Ebersole hopes the Republican Party moves on — and that Iowa can begin that process when it holds its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses next month.
“Because he wasn’t as respectful as I think our president should be,” Ebersole said of Trump. “Because he didn’t bring us together. Because of the divisiveness. Because of my liberal friends that were literally scared for their safety.”
That last part is telling for a couple of reasons.
First, it reflects Ebersole’s libertarian brand of conservatism.
“I want everyone to be able to do what they want to do safely and not have it affect the next person,” she said. “I have so many liberal friends who were divided and who were scared by some policies that were put into place, or the inflammatory statements that people have made in the past that they lived scared, and no one should have to live that way.”
She added: “But I also shouldn’t be scared because I want to own my own guns. I can do that safely in my own home without affecting anyone else.”
The judgmental tone of Trump and his allies doesn’t sit well with Ebersole.
“I just want to…
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