16 November 2016
Seasonal specials and coupons made me grab a full-sized cart. Up and down the aisles I went, two disposable roasting pans, four pounds of butter, six tubes of biscuits and a dozen packs of gravy joining the growing mound in my cart.
Between the potato chips and the toilet paper I came across a woman proud to wear a lot of costume jewelry with her big hair. She looked vaguely familiar, one of the thousands I met while knocking doors during my campaign. I gave my friendly smile – and got the death stare back. She stood there, her cart blocking my path, never saying anything, just turning more red and angry while I smiled back. After a bit (when she realized I don’t back down) she turned her cart around and retraced her way to the other side of the store.
I wasn’t surprised. I had gotten an icy look from another older woman at the local Bread Co. a day earlier.
My campaign materials never qualified as attack pieces. The two items mailed to all voters listed my positions, the second had one side explaining that MY #1 PRIORITY was education the flip side listing what I supported and what I opposed. My door piece talked about the same issues in the same way.
And, let’s not forget that I lost and the candidate of the mad people won.
This inability to be gracious winners isn’t limited to Oakville.
Have you looked at the tabloids? The National Enquirer, Hillary & Huma – Going To Jail. In The Globe a story on the former Secretary of State’s health starts out with “LYING Hillary Clinton…”
The votes may have been counted but for the Trumpets the war continues. Election victory means the conquerors get what they want. They demand that wall they were promised, they expect companies will be forced to bring jobs back to America, they require refuges to be expelled from this continent, and, they’re already looking for bigger numbers on their paycheck.
Pity the politicians who don’t deliver.
While things will be bad in Washington, tidbits from Jefferson City suggest a coming nuclear winter. Missouri already has a severe revenue shortage (see the Kansas City Star piece on the $350 million shortfall this fiscal year: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article114980593.html ).
Oh, it’s easy to dismiss that $350 million short out of a $28 billion budget as couch change, just 1¼¢ on the dollar. Alas, it’s actually $350 million out of around $8.5 billion (4¢) in state generated revenue, or, most correct, about 7¢ of every non-earmarked general revenue dollar. The best guess right now is that this mess will be left like a gift from a bad dog on the carpet for new Governor Greitens. Those of us who follow the Missouri budget know that virtually all the “fat” has been burned away in the three decades since enactment of the Hancock Amendment. Finding 7% to cut means picking which bones to amputate.
So, while the governor slashes spending on education and Medicaid and mental health, his party will be working hard to insure that the next budget year is an even greater calamity. Reports are that the new session will begin with enactment of Right To Work, move-on to fast tracking activation of the Eric Schmidt tax cuts, and, quickly get to school vouchers – perhaps $2,500 per non-public school student paid for out of the money already promised to public schools. Expect more essential services, such as Medicaid, to be vendored-out to for-profit companies. That will justify steep reductions in the number of state employees available to assist their neighbors.
It is also probable that the mega-majority party will begin steps to murder the state income tax and replace it with an increase to the sales tax of about 5¢ a dollar (meaning some total sales tax rates in St. Louis County and the city will top 15¢ per buck). The end results will be far greater tax burdens and poor and working folks and much less money available to state government.
Really, the Republicans have no choice. They accepted great heaps of money from investors with known agendas. The voters have screamed that they want less government and – more importantly – lower tax bills. Consequences be damned, the House, the Senate and the governor must give everyone what they promised them.
Next year expect Kansas residents to look east and laugh. Kansas had a train wreck. Missouri has twice as many people and almost thrice the economy of Kansas, so, our calamity will be monumentally greater.
Meanwhile, how funny it is that folks who never gave the Obama or Nixon administrations a chance at success now claim we ‘owe it’ to Trump and Greitens to let them govern the way they want. We should all forget the election, the lies, and sing happy songs around the campfire.
Bovine by-product.
No return to normalcy this time. We have learned from the loud, often profane, opposition of the past eight years. Everyday those in power need to be reminded of their promises and face endless demands to deliver. It will be perfectly acceptable to point at the GOPers and say, “Ha – Ha!”
So, I expect that more red-faced Republicans will direct their ire my way. I’ll always smile. We should all smile, just before we laugh at them.
Glenn
Glenn Koenen