Word games won’t feed farmers or keep us safe

By Erica Neely  

Nevada News and Views

On July 16, 2025, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto took to X to slam Republicans for voting to cut certain funding in the latest federal spending bill.

Here’s what she wrote: “Tonight, Republicans voted to slash funds that help rural communities, Tribes, families with kids, and farmers across the country. Public broadcasting funding in particular plays a critical role in delivering emergency alerts and keeping communities across Nevada safe.”

She ended her post by accusing Republicans of setting a “dangerous precedent” by clawing back funding that had already been approved with bipartisan support.

Sounds scary, right? Only if you stop reading there.

The Conflict

Here’s where it gets tricky — and typical.

Cortez Masto’s post was carefully worded to make it sound like Republicans were targeting vulnerable groups. But read it again. Notice the groups she chooses to mention: Tribes, families with kids, and farmers.

Here’s a fair question I asked in response:

I called her out, because what she’s doing is playing the identity-politics word game. Again.

The Consequences

Here’s what happens when politicians like Cortez Masto spin reality to fit a narrative: trust breaks down.

She’s not telling you what program was cut or why. She’s telling you who you should feel bad for, and who you should blame.

Never mind whether those cuts were reasonable, or if they affected everyone equally. Never mind that “public broadcasting” isn’t the lifeline she claims it is for emergency alerts in 2025, when most people get real-time updates from phones, apps, or even satellites.

Nope. She wants you to believe the GOP woke up one morning and said: “Let’s go after tribes and farmers.”

That’s not truth. That’s emotional manipulation.

The Pattern

This is classic progressive strategy: when they don’t have a strong policy argument, they default to division.

They don’t say “here’s what was in the bill” or “here’s how this affects all Americans.” They say, “Here’s a list of oppressed groups you should feel sorry for, and the Republicans just voted to hurt them.”

We’ve seen this tactic before; on immigration, on healthcare, on school lunches, even on broadband. Pick a few sympathetic groups, assign them victimhood status, and accuse conservatives of targeting them.

It’s not leadership. It’s lazy politics.

The Bigger Picture

Americans are tired of this.

We’re struggling with real problems: rising costs, housing shortages, overstretched schools, and vanishing farms. And our lawmakers? They’re on social media turning every budget negotiation into a race-baiting, class-warfare circus.

Meanwhile, many rural Americans — regardless of race — feel forgotten. Farmers of every background are being buried in regulations, taxed into the ground, and priced out of the markets they built. What they need isn’t another hashtag. They need action.

When you reduce everything to identity politics, nobody gets helped. It’s all noise. No results.

The Bottom Line

Catherine Cortez Masto isn’t defending farmers or rural communities. She’s defending a narrative.

She’s twisting the facts to make Republicans look heartless while ignoring the truth: budgets require choices, and public broadcasting isn’t the sacred cow she’s pretending it is.

If she wants to fight for families, she should start by telling the truth and stop dividing us with empty labels.

We don’t need more word games. We need grown-ups in Congress.

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Erica Neely is a grassroots advocate, small business owner, director, community leader, and founder of the Hispanic Latin Alliance. Deeply rooted in family values, she is passionate about empowering her community and driving meaningful change.