One of the political activist's favorite tropes is to cry the sky is falling. No other election has ever been as important as this one! Do you know what dire things will fall on us if you don't vote? Your children! Your grandchildren! Your parents! Your pocketbook!
But the truth is that every election is as important as this one. And every election is important.
Over the past few weeks we have told you what issues hang in the balance this election. We've given you information so you can choose for whom to vote. And today we will tell you a little about what you can expect to happen after this election if moderates don't win.
It is, after all, Halloween.
Time for scary stories.
If moderates don't vote
If the current administration in Topeka wins, if Governor Brownback, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Attorney General Schmidt, and the rest of their team are re-elected, they will see it as a mandate for their positions. There will be no retreat from further tax cuts, there will be bloodletting in the budgets, beginning with education, there will be a re-trenchment of religious ideology in public policy... but at least with a "mandate" it will be less hidden.
These are high-minded people with lofty ideals of zero taxes and freedom for everyone to do as they like, of government stripped bare of costly compassion, and society given over to the corporation's calculated risks.
And if the current slate of extreme legislators are returned to the house in Topeka, and the moderate bulkhead of common sense incumbents removed, we can expect much worse from that body. What rhetoric have we heard from them, that unfettered by opposition would become attempted policy? Elimination of family planning, and reproductive health choices. The brick by brick dismantling of public schools in favor of private schools where opinion holds sway over science. Tax burdens lifted from the rich so that, in their largesse, they might let some prosperity trickle down to the rest. Law written by the highest bidder. The right to vote, the right to live free of prejudice, the right to worship, or not, as you like, curtailed in the name of "freedom." The "majority," tired of having to compromise for the few. These are the extremists with their pet projects, their ultrasounds in the capitol, their helicopter hog hunts, their healthcare refusals and legalized discriminations.
Justice, law, and governing, become a tree with no balance, stripped of its branches, sticking straight out of the ground like a spear.
A grim picture, isn't it? A ghost story, or not so far fetched?
- Threats to the Judiciary - KC Star
- School funding key - LJ World
- Kansas Governor Is Forcing Disabled People Off Medicaid - ThinkProgress
- Health Care Compact gains attention as campaign issue - KHI
- Citizenship law hits young voters, low-income neighborhoods hardest - LJ World
If moderates vote
Now let's paint a different picture. Imagine if you will, that on the day after the election, you wake to news that the country has turned to the right. The U.S. House has gotten more extreme. The U.S. Senate has turned over. Your moderate friends in Iowa or Wisconsin are shaking their heads, not sure what happened. But then, on the news, you hear about a... well, a miracle. Kansas, they say, Kansas of all places, has rejected extremism. Imagine our state being held up as a symbol of... moderation? Common sense? Action by the people in the middle, seeking common ground, not the bunkered margins.
Wouldn't that be a delightful day?
Isn't that worth your vote?
- Moderate thunder out of Kansas - Washington Post
- Tide going out for the Tea Party in US midterms - Sydney Morning Herald
- Republican extremists have gone too far in Kansas - AlterNet
- A GOP Governor Tried A Radical Tax 'Experiment' - And Now He's Hanging On For His Political Life - Business Insider
- What's the Matter with Kansas? - Georgetown Public Policy Review
Vote
And get everyone you know to do so, too. Shout it to the skies, or whisper it to your friends. Tell it as a story, or let us do it for you. Forward this message on to anyone you know who might get out and vote.
Go vote.
Thank you.
