The world is agog that the state of Kansas has elected its first Democratic Senator in nearly 100 years. And while votes are still being counted, Kansas might end up with a Democratic governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. How agog-y can you get?
Thing is, Donald Trump wasn't the guy who broke Kansas for the GOP.
No, that honor goes to former Senator and then Governor Sam Brownback, who implemented a half-baked, tax-and-spending-cut scheme that ended up in chaos. (The Kansas Supreme Court had to order the legislature to meet its constitutional obligation to fund education.) Things unraveled for the Republicans from there.
Brownback begat Democrat Laura Kelly, a moderate former Republican, as a two-term governor. He begat the beginning of the a slow shift in the makeup of the state legislature. And now we have not just Laura Kelly and Sharice Davids, but Adam Hamilton and Cindy Holscher and an almost-flip in one of the three remaining Republican-held Congressional districts. Pretty amazing.
Florida should pay attention. They've passed a Brownback-on-steroids constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes, and the impact on the entire range of municipal services will be immediate. It will turn out to be a long-term loss for Republicans as classroom sizes explode, schools, libraries, and municipal parks close, streets aren't cleaned, public hospitals are forced to cut services, etc. etc.
How will the hapless governor-elect Byron Donalds navigate all this? We cats wait and watch — but because we believe in government and the idea that we're all in the same boat together, we HISS.
(IMAGE: Original illustration for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by W.W. Denslow, 1900)
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