Can Missouri be saved?
Maybe…but probably not.
The People’s Champions work for their own glory
The last four Missouri Attorneys General have not promoted the public good. Starting with Josh Hawley personal aggrandizement took first place. Likewise Eric Schmidy and Andrew Bailey. That worked well for them, with two making the United States Senate and Bailey scoring a top political appointment in the FBI. The current AG, Catherine Hanaway, began her tenure by suing to essentially prevent Missouri voters from exercising their constitutional right to challenge a partisan action by the Legislature.
The top state official does only what national Republican leadership tells him
The previous governor sent Missouri Highway Patrol troopers and National Guard to help ‘protect ‘ the border between Mexico and Texas. The current governor did not send a major Guard force to help tornado-ravaged St. Louis city, called a special session (ordered by the Trumpsters) to steal a Congressional seat away from a black Democrat, and, wants to use taxpayer money to appease billionaire sports teams owners. In his spare time he supports taking tax money from public schools to give it to elitist, discriminatory private schools.
Missouri’s legislature can’t do math
With overwhelming GOP majorities, the Missouri legislature gave away around $650 million by killing the state capital gains tax. They took money from local schools, fire districts and such by instituting a property tax freeze for senior citizens without any means testing or meaningful restrictions. Now a vocal group of Republicans pushes to end the state’s individual income tax – by far Missouri’s greatest source of state-generated revenue – without a clear and workable plan to replace the billions in lost revenue.
But wait – can’t those leading Missouri change?
Probably not.
Missouri is now an ultra-reliably red state and rich outsiders want that to continue.
In recent weeks at my house we’ve received two mailers from Americans For Prosperity, an ultra-right wing group funded by the Koch brothers. The mailers promote a state representative (Jim Murphy, R – south St. Louis County) who proudly posed for pictures last year at the battlefront protecting Texas from murdering swarms of Mexicans. These are preemptive, pre-election season efforts to stoke anti-Democrat feelings: Republicans protect America, Democrats destroy. AFP snaked out tentacles into other parts of the region too. In the Trump era these unregulated “independent” politicking efforts will become more common. Murphy and other beneficiaries say – ‘I didn’t ask for this, they just did it.’
Look at voting history too. Voters acted to protect reproductive rights: the legislature eagerly squashes that vote. If it can get on the ballot, citizens will overturn the new Congressional maps too. So, remember that a major GOP goal is to make initiative petitions impossible to pass. Under their plan, a measure would need to pass in every Congressional district. In other words, a measure could get every single vote in seven district yet fail by one vote short of a majority in a single district.
I know, this sounds very pessimistic. Reality is what reality is. And, the reality will become even more harsh. Missouri has become a failed state.
Glenn