Built to Fail

I just found out that I live in one of the worst ranked states in the country.

Well, I already knew that instinctively, but my thoughts were confirmed when I came across a CNBC study of the worst ranked states in the country. Here is the ranking:

1. Tennessee

2. Texas

3. Indiana

4. Louisiana

5. Georgia

6. Utah

7. Missouri

8. Alabama

9. Oklahoma

10. Arkansas

States ranked at the bottom of the list were penalized for high crime rates, low health care access, a lack of livable wage policies, a lack of worker protections, and laws that restrict civil and reproductive rights.

Yep. Missouri resembles those remarks…

I bet you noticed something else immediately, though. Each of the states listed is dominated by the Republican Party. They all have a GOP-dominated government and many of the states listed, like mine, have had a GOP supermajority for decades and also have a Republican trifecta holding the Governor’s office and the Statehouse and State Senate.

This is where I state the obvious: Republicans can’t govern. And they don’t want to. It was never about governance. It was always about consolidating power.

You can imagine how many lawmakers I have talked to or listened to over the years. It’s been more than I care to count. I am an expert on the stump speech at this point, and some of them have been pretty terrible, but a few will always stick out in my memory as complete and total bullshit. I will never get that time back, but what really stuck with me are the folks running for office with naked ambition — many of them felt no reason to even hide it.

The worst stump speeches always come from an incumbent Republican or, for that matter, any Republican running for a seat in a safe district. A district like mine that hasn’t elected a Democrat in 34 years and never a woman.

These wannabe politicians rarely hide their hubris and regularly double-down on propaganda and nonsense. This includes running as a “pro-life” candidate in a state with an abortion ban or on school vouchers for the private religious schools that do not even exist in many safe red districts.

They run on “anti-woke” agendas in towns so small that there are no stoplights but three Baptist churches — and not a woke agenda in sight. They push anti-trans legislation in school sports in places where the local school has nine kids per grade and has to co-op with two other schools to fill out an 8-Man football team.

They also run on Trump. No, seriously. They run on being the biggest Trump suck-up.

There are two Republican candidates running in my Congressional district who box each other’s ears over who is the biggest Trump sycophant. They have each sent out mailers with Trump’s image claiming to be the biggest MAGA simp on the planet. They don’t bother to wipe the brown off their noses. You would think the bootlicking is embarrassing enough, but not for these men.

These candidates attack each other not for stances on policy or healthcare or schools or roads or even farms. They attack each other claiming the other doesn’t stand with Trump. It’s bizarre.

It’s also sickening when you think about what Trump policies have done to my rural, agricultural district. Much more sickening when you think about what Trump has done to women like E. Jean Carroll.

MO 6th District Congressional candidate Nathan Willett stands 100% with a convicted rapist.

Missouri is ranked as one of the worst places to live and Republican candidates all around me run on absolutely nothing. Sometimes even worse than nothing — and they keep winning. In landslides.

It’s maddening that the Republican playbook is not even subtle. They say the quiet part out loud. They are running to consolidate Republican power in a red state.

Republicans call it leadership when the roads crumble and the hospitals close and the public schools starve and the people they claim to represent are left with nothing in a state that continuously fails its citizens.

And that’s the thing: at the end of the day, what does all of the Republican loyalty get the average red state voter? Nothing. Less than nothing. Bottom of the barrel status.

Messaging on culture war propaganda is much easier than speaking about policies. It’s also easier to vote for a culture warrior than it is to figure out which politician is running with your best interest at heart.

Some voters just like to vote for a brand and then quit paying attention once the ballot is cast, but I think that bit has run its course. Voters can’t look away from a war of choice and high gas and food prices. They can’t look away when their school goes to a 4-day week and their local hospital closes. They can’t not see their towns folding in front of their eyes.

The culture war distractions only work as long as people are willing to ignore the results. But the results are here anyway. They are measurable and personal.

Missouri isn’t failing by accident — it’s failing by design under leaders who never intended to govern in the first place. Republicans can’t govern and they don’t want to. It was always about consolidating power.

The only way out of the bottom of that CNBC list is for voters to demand something better…something like actual leadership.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If we keep voting for the same performance, we’re going to keep getting the same outcome. If we keep voting for the same party, they will keep doing what they have done for over two decades.

We already know exactly where that leads.

~Jess

P.S. If you would like to help fund down-ballot Democratic nominees in Missouri, please join Blue Missouri. We will be calling candidates in just two weeks to let them know how much their campaign will be receiving from Blue Missouri donors. We are one of the largest donors to candidates in the entire state — we fund the reddest and toughest races across the state.

You can join here.