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Opinion

When Missouri’s Circus reaches D.C.

By January 30, 2023No Comments
“Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.”- Ronald Reagan.

It’s the start of a new Congressional session for both the state of Missouri and the Federal Congress.

It started off like a massive dumpster fire rolling down Main Street.  Between the pre-files from Missouri state legislators, gaudy cowboy boots from our newly elected senator, and in Washington, the 15 votes it took to elect the Speaker of the US House,  it’s a pretty good sign of what is to come from our politics over the next two years.  15 votes!  Yes, you read that right.  It’s been 100 years since leadership elections have been this messed up.

Obviously, nothing about this start that looks like the “status quo” or even any kind of “normal” in the 247 years of traditions that everyone has become accustomed to.   Sean Hannity nailed it when he said,  “It’s turning into a clown show,” and most people understand when they start agreeing with Hannity, things are bad.

While folks seem to be in shock at the 118th Congressional soap opera happening in real-time, they don’t realize this is the kind of nonsense that Missourians have seen the GOP super-majority for the past 20 years.  They also don’t seem to realize that the last time Congress was in this much chaos, the Civil War was triggered, with Missouri’s politics being the primary catalyst to that bloody event.  So, let’s dig into the backstory of how Missouri contributed to the current circus for the US.

It’s no secret that Missouri’s political climate always spills over into the national stage. Be it the Dred Scott Decision to more recent events involving threats to National Security. So, the minority taking the majority hostage for the Speaker of the House is nothing Missourians haven’t seen before. The internal fighting among Missouri’s GOP has gotten so bad that there’s no longer a Republican Caucus for the state due to how extreme the MAGA is getting. To put it bluntly, this hostage-taking has led to the passage of extreme legislation, e.g., the “Trigger Ban” on abortion and anti-federal gun laws under SAPA (Second Amendment Preservation Act).   We see it in pre-filed bills like SB 356 — z bill to legalize forced birth, outlaw birth control, and charge women with murder for having a miscarriage. This entire bill is considered a war crime and against international law.   SB 358 says that “Any and all Federal laws” are invalid in Missouri unless approved by the Missouri Legislative body. This entire bill  is unconstitutional due to the Supremacy Clause in the US Constitution.   This same tactic is being used to achieve their end goal of control of the Speaker of the House and gaining absolute control of the House with no compromise.
Missouri, particularly Congressional District 8, is a prime example of how these clowns govern.   See the stats and rankings nationally as proof.   The backstory of how Missouri became the picture of how MAGA truly is bringing new meaning to the word “extreme.”   Today, people have beared  witness  since the 2000s of the GOP’s extreme actions, but  2016 – 2020 brought these true colors in full view, e,g,
  • Missourian Attorney General John Ashcroft directed the FBI not to investigate Al Qaida threats in 2004 and brushed off 9/11 warnings of one of the most brutal acts of terror that took 2,996 American lives.
  • Exactly 12 years later, his son became Secretary of state for Missouri with the same kind of appetite for religious zealotry and need for absolute power. Ashcroft jr. started his gubernatorial campaign for 2024 through culture wars and his rules on public libraries and schools.  Likely unconstitutional, all are designed to fit the agenda of the homegrown extremists’ agenda. But the Ashcrofts are not the anomaly in Missouri politics. I
  • We now see Senator Josh Hawley and his GOP pals begin their screeching about land being sold to China, and other foreign investors as if these were something new and strictly “Democrats doing.”   But no, Missouri started selling farmland to China in 2013 while our newly elected Senator Eric Schmitt was in the Missouri Legislative branch that voted to allow the law to be changed and then worked to pass it again when Governor Jay Nixon vetoed it.   The result:  China now owns over 146,000 acres of Missouri’s farmland. In the same spirit,
  • Governor Parson sharply turned his horizons to the Middle East (UAE and Israel) for more trading opportunities.   To his credit, Parson was following the way of the “battle-hardened culture warriors” of the “Ultra MAGA” created by Trumpism.  For those of you playing at home, the Trump administration’s ties to China and his son-in-law Jared Kushner marched off with Billions of dollars from Saudi. It could be argued that foreign investors are a popular thing to do when “Ultra MAGA”, and Hawley are merely trying to pretend they care about national security to pull the attention away from his own misdeeds with his involvement in MAGA. Of course, Hawley didn’t start his chicken screech until Dan Crenshaw raised the question on national security and had a moment of clarity.

As folks can see, Missouri has a bigger impact on the national stage, including foreign policy, than people care to admit to; everyone should start paying attention to flyover country. Missouri is the shining example of what GOP governing looks like and what their status quo is since Missouri is “ground zero” for the Republican failed social experiment. In summary, what everyone sees with the Speaker of the House is the mess the GOP leaves in their wake and their attempt to govern.   This nonsense foretells the story of how long the next two years will be;  more deranged legislation can be expected to come from both Congress and the state of Missouri.

So buckle up!   It’s bound to get even stranger and crazier now that the minority has taken the majority as hostages.