Sam Brownback
The title of this post is a take-off on a book that was published in 1935 by George Dangerfield, “The Strange Death of Liberal England: 1910-1914.”
A classic of political history, it describes how the Liberal Party in Great Britain self-destructed over the four critical issues of that era; Irish Home Rule, women’s suffrage, reform of the House of Lords, and the rise of trade unionism.
It’s a book which Tom Frank (author of, ‘What’s The Matter with Kansas?”) and I both really enjoyed.
By the same token, we feel that traditional American Liberalism (or neo-liberalism as ‘progressives,’ i.e. radicals, call it) has exhausted itself and may well have run its course as a dynamic, substantive movement.
Just look at the political situation we find ourselves in here locally. Kansas governor Laura Kelly is running against the GOP candidate Derek Schmidt as the attorney general who worked with Sam (Beelzebub, Lucifer, Mephistopheles) Brownback when the latter was governor. I fully expect to see a 666 placed on Brownback’s forehead by computer graphics in Kelly’s media spots.
Those who are past readers of my blogs know that I’m no fan of Sam B. Nonetheless, Kelly’s ads are masterpieces in mendacity. She rails against Brownback for cutting school funding, but the actual record is very different.
The 2008 financial meltdown began in earnest on September 15th of that year when Lehman Brothers failed. By early 2009, the national economy was in a free fall and with it state tax collections. Governor Kathleen Sebelius had no choice but to cut educational spending by almost 20 percent across the board. Moreover, these were real cuts, not just a lower increase of spending than Democrats would like, which is the usual definition of “cuts.”
I doubt any governor would have done anything different. The problem with Kelly’s ads is that Brownback did not become governor until January 2011, two full years after the spending cuts occurred.
Upon becoming governor, Brownback picked up where Sebelius and her successor, Mark Parkinson, left off; working to restore educational spending. One can argue that he made his job difficult by his tax cuts. Fair enough, but you also have to concede that there was a collapse in oil and gas prices, the loss of 50,000 aviation manufacturing jobs in Wichita and a slump in beef and crop prices, all of which hit Kansas very hard but none of which had anything to do with Brownback and his actions as governor.
The irony is that state tax revenues have rebounded nicely after the pandemic, so apparently Sam the Sham did not permanently destroy Kansas finances, as his critics insisted at the time.
Kelly is also flailing on her handling of the pandemic itself.
She broke with the Biden administration on the mask mandate for that most noble of principles, self-preservation. However she also gave in to the KNEA, the most powerful force in the Democratic party. The school shutdowns backed by Kelly had little to do with protecting children and a lot to do with the teacher’s union wanting its members to get paid without having to go to work.
Now we know the true cost of the school closures, test scores plummeting at every level and 20 years of educational progress wiped out. Kelly recently reaffirmed her decision to keep schools closed as long as possible and was awarded with renewed access to the KNEA’s political war chest. A real profile in courage!
Sharice Davids is also invoking Sam Brownback as the arch fiend, also based on his supposed cuts in school spending, which (again) occurred two years before he took office.
Kansas school funding is not a federal issue, so I’m not sure what it has to do with a race in the US House of Representatives. I realized, however, that this was keeping with liberals love of personalized politics. Your opponent is not just wrong or misguided but, to use a favorite trope of the Trump era, “is literally Hitler.”
First it was Phill Kline, Kansas state rep and attorney general, then it was the Koch Brothers. Then it was Vince Snowbarger, Third District Congressman. Then it was Kris Kobach, former secretary of state, gubernatorial candidate, and now running for Kansas attorney general.
Even poor Bob Dole was a hate figure to local liberals! Continue reading
