Kansas is the focus of a three-part series on the news program “All In,” on channel MSNBC.
Yes, it’s a liberal-leaning program, hosted by Chris Allen, so its bent, naturally, was to target ultra-conservative decisions it deemed harmful to Kansans, including:
• Massive income tax cuts for the rich, but tax increases on the poor, that have resulted in a loss of 8 percent of state revenues, the equivalent of a mini-recession;
• Mandatory drug tests for those applying for both welfare and unemployment benefits;
• Proof of U.S. citizenship for those registering to vote for the first time;
• Stripping teachers of tenure and their right to due process;
• Denying the expansion of Medicaid, and
• Eviscerating Kansas gun laws.
Gone are the days when our wholesome breadbasket image went hand-in-hand with moderation and commonsense.
Today, Kansas is seen as a laboratory for ultra-conservative ideas with Gov. Sam Brownback as its fearless leader.
Less than two years in office, Brownback worked to remake the Legislature in his image, recruiting conservative Republicans to run against moderate incumbents. Eight moderates, including Senate President Steve Morris, were replaced by conservatives in 2012. Today both houses of the Legislature have overwhelming majorities of conservative lawmakers, allowing their agenda to proceed unchecked.
Moderates call the political climate “Brownbackistan,” akin to an Eastern European country in the grip of a dictator.
TO OUTSIDERS, Kansas is also known as Koch Country, in reference to the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, whose Wichita-based petroleum industry funds conservative politics outright and through its Americans for Prosperity.
This legislative season alone, opponents have funneled $300,000 in efforts to repeal the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard that requires utilities to adapt 20 percent of their energy sources to renewable energy by 2020.
The Kochs work to stymie solar power, repeal renewable energy mandates and encourage climate change denial, in efforts to benefit their privately held petroleum business, valued at $100 billion.
Six separate legislative bills were written to repeal the renewable energy mandate this past session.
