We now know: Rex Sinquefield wants to be James T. Kirk.
As we learned in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, among many, many Star Fleet cadets only James Kirk beat the Kobayashi Maru scenario. Simply, a star fleet captain has to decide whether to violate the Neutral Zone – incurring instant attack by the Klingons – in order to save a freighter (the Kobayashi Maru) facing imminent demise. As Spock explains, there is no correct answer as the no-win scenario tests a potential captain’s character in the face of certain death…
Dr. Leonard McCoy: Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Star Fleet cadet who ever beat the “No-Win” scenario.
Saavik: How?
James Kirk: I reprogrammed the simulation so that it was possible to save the ship.
Saavik: What?!
David: [chuckles] He cheated!
Kirk: Changed the conditions of the test… got a commendation for original thinking. I don’t like to lose…I don’t believe in a “no-win” scenario…
— Dialog from Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan
Now, as I and others point out, under the current Missouri Constitution the process of a St. Louis city-county “merger” requires a series of votes, starting with a two-thirds vote by city resident to dissolve St. Louis City as a county. Then it gets complicated.
As reported in the current St. Louis Business Journal , a soon to be released Better Together study proposes a cheat worthy of James Kirk: change that pesky Missouri Constitution so that a new style of entity – essentially the city taking over the county – would be created.
Here’s the chief advantage of this approach. An overwhelming majority of both city and county voters could reject the change and it would still happen!
Yes, in this scenario a vote from Chesterfield or Carondelet Park counts just as much as a vote from Nixa or Neosho.
Going back to November’s election…Amendment 1, CLEAN, garnered a total of 2,368,706 votes: just 553,381 – a mere 23% – came from St. Louis County and the city combined. That means a 75% “yes” vote outside of the city and county would guarantee victory, even with three-fourths of locals voting “No.”
So, again according to credible reporting, King Rex has pledged to finance getting the Better Together amendment onto the November 2020 ballot. As Dr. Brad Bradshaw showed with last November’s Amendment 3, money can get anything on the ballot.
UMSL political science professor Terry Jones called the proposal “A very sweeping change that has all sorts of unintended consequences that I would think need to be answered before jumping off a cliff.”
Possibly, possibly not.
Remember, county residents voted for the Proposition P sales tax to better fund law enforcement salaries, and, add cops so that they county could field two-man police cars. Now, I’ve yet to see two policeman in a county car but I have read of Prop. P money going to fund street repairs. The way Prop P was marketed had little relevance to how the money gets used.
In other words, buckle up because James T. Kirk/Rex Sinquefield seems intent on taking us all for a very wild ride.
Glenn