Mary Jo Kearns brings us her thoughts on many different issues.
Book Report
I just finished reading historian Heather Cox Richardson’s latest book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. Richardson weaves the history of the United States as the tale of an early democratic experiment that has struggled and morphed many times while maintaining hold of its concepts of rule of law and human equality before the law. She tells a hopeful story of how those two principles of democracy have continued to lead us toward progress, that is, toward improving the human condition even through periods of struggle and division.
Conservative Means Stable and Trustworthy In some of her online talks, Heather Cox Richardson defines conservatism as the desire and effort to maintain stability in a society and in government. She says that in this definition of conservative, the current Republican party is anything but conservative. Its tendency to foment fear, grievance, lawlessness, subterfuge, bad faith, and chaos, as well as legislative inaction [my paraphrases], is radical, and nothing like the conservative Republicanism of the last century.
Uncertain Times As our current media and some leaders have pointed out, a theme this season is the threat of authoritarianism and the rise of an autocrat who could conceivably control and use the military to his/its own ends. Depending on outcomes, the 2024 elections could radically change how our country is governed. A Kansas journalist called New Year’s Eve 2023 “The Eve of Uncertainty.” Anyone paying attention to politics these days probably feels that uncertainty. In the miasma of uncertainty, I thought it might help me, and maybe you, too, to review some basic facts of our state legislature before getting into the ways the Republican legislative majority will try to press their often undemocratic agendas:
Facts about Party Affiliation and the Party Makeup of the Annual 2024 Kansas Legislative Session
Kansas has been mostly Republican, from its earliest days as a state. Originally. being “Republican” meant “anti-slavery” and thus Republicans supported equal rights for former slaves, that is, all Black people. Today, however, equality in diversity does not seem to be a policy priority for most Republicans.
The majority of Kansas voters are Republican and “unaffiliated.” Oct 2022 Registered Voters:
858,429 Republicans
503,746 Democrats
23,053 Libertarians
565,871 unaffiliated
State legislators that represent Kansas voters in Topeka show a higher majority of Republicans than the general population of voters. [Ballotpedia, January 2024.]
State Senators: 28 Republicans (70%), 1 Independent (2.5%), 11 Democrats (24.5%)
Statehouse Representatives: 40 Republicans (32%), 85 Democrats (68%)
Some Republican Legislative Goals for the 2024 Session
Republicans want to cut public education funding and deny adequate (state mandated) support for special education, in favor of private school and home school vouchers.
Republicans want to deny Medicaid expansion, which has left Kansas out of many millions of federal dollars of support for medical care for the poorest, including children. Governor Kelly is determined to negotiate a work provision in order to get this program expanded and to take advantage of federal funds, after over a decade of lost revenue. Kansas is one of only 10 states who have not expanded Medicaid and used federal millions. Medicaid expansion will likely pay for itself and rescue a number of endangered rural hospitals and the jobs they provide.
Republicans intend to push for a flat tax, where everyone pays the same rate on their income, regardless of the annual amount. This tax plan benefits wealthy retired people (and senators) more than it does poor working people, Additionally, a flat tax shrinks the state’s revenues over time, so eventually state politicians (Republicans) can say, “We don’t have enough revenue to support public schools or other social programs.”
Legislative Issues of Interest to Younger Voters
Abortion When the U.S. Supreme Court took away the universal right to abortion, and some states began to criminalize any and all abortions, more young people came to the polls to vote in 2022. Abortion issues continue to appear, for example in Idaho, Texas, Mississippi, and Ohio. In Kansas, time will tell whether the legislature again tries to bring abortion restrictions in 2024.
Education Issues
Republicans continue to underfund public schools. Democratic lawmakers support children and young people and use legislation to ensure children, teens, and young adults have the skills, knowledge, and discipline to better themselves and maintain strong and welcoming communities. Republicans have already announced their intention to make law that will cut public education funding and deny adequate (state mandated) support for special education, in favor of private school and home school vouchers. If you care about public schools, be prepared to write and call and visit your congressional representatives to say YES to supporting fully funded public schools and NO to vouchers or other schemes of tax money going to private- and home-schooling.
Republicans threaten university programs. Across the country is a Republican push to drastically eliminate liberal arts studies in universities. In Kansas, Emporia State University was one of the first in this wave of department closings. It was led by a Koch-Brothers operative, Ken Hush, to shut down degree majors and programs in a number of departments. Emporia was well-respected for its journalism school, but now it has closed. The School of Arts and Sciences no longer has foreign language majors, except Spanish, and no longer supports many science courses in physics and biology. History and philosophy are also gone from areas of study. Where Emporia once turned out impressive number of teachers, now the university has severely declining enrollment.
It’s troubling that hatchet-man Hush was hired with no warning, and there was no public study or announcement of what cutbacks would look like or be best for the state, the students, or the university as a whole. He just began firing faculty and cutting programs “to save money.”
Universities Inject New Ideas I hope young people pay attention to the stealthy ways that funding and program decisions are made in their universities. Dissent is part of a healthy society, and universities offer opportunities for young people to try out, argue, and debate new and old ideas. The Republican focus on cutting education funding without public input shuts down the opportunities of university students to test alternative ways of thinking and operating. A diverse and thriving university environment can produce effective, creative, and committed problem-solvers--leaders for the future. It seems to me that Republicans are afraid young people will bring energy and new solutions to social and political issues.
“Christian” Immigration Policy? “Injecting new ideas” brings me to the subject of immigration. This has become a political football, rather than a situation looking for reasonable and humane solutions. When it comes to choosing a president of the US, if immigration is your main reason to vote for a candidate, consider the different approaches of both parties. The Republican candidate solves problems in the simplest and quickest possible way, regardless of complications. The Democratic candidate is not afraid to look for human, rather than brutal and summary, measures. I often ask, how do MAGA Christians reckon with the practice of treating migrants inhumanely? Do they “do unto others” only for US citizens and legals, or only people like themselves? Is it a good idea to plant razor wire in the Rio Grande? To take children from families? Starve migrants? Herd them like animals? Incarcerate them? Shoot them outright?
Convenient Christianity from the safety and comfort of your homes, families, and churches does not answer immigration problems. It takes people with at least SOME interest in caring what happens to hopeful migrants and those seeking amnesty at the border, by putting good minds to solutions. Large numbers of migrants and the importing of dangerous drugs are both problems that need to be addressed, but we need solutions that use knowledge of facts rather than tales of horror. Simplistic solutions to the pressing and complex issues around immigration are not humane or Christian. And I fear that the current MAGA way of thinking, where God is supposedly on the side of the mighty, will lead to pulling out the guns and forcing people into refugee camps. Such easy measures don’t hold up over time and will spawn unwelcome reactions.
I think there’s a streak of sheer, self-righteous cruelty, a pleasure in violence, that runs just under the surface of Republicans these days. It’s not even hidden. This streak of pleasure in hurting someone is unapologetic. Violence is, to some of our fellow citizens, even considered heroic. But true heroes conquer their fear to save lives and stop unnecessary suffering, not by promoting violence.
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