MAGA Bootlicking and Flip-Flopping

Some Missouri lawmakers should start their mornings with toast and boot polish.

I am ashamed to be an American right now.

The Zelensky/Trump meeting debacle has haunted me for days. I couldn’t watch it all in one session. I watched a few minutes of the meeting, and then I turned it off. I read the transcript and I was even more outraged.

I watched video clips on Blue Sky and could barely control my emotions…the part that stuck with me? When the President representing a war-torn country was asked, “Why don't you wear a suit? Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have a problem with you not respecting the dignity of the office,”

I wanted to cry. And then I wanted to punch something.

Brian Glenn was the “reporter” who asked the demeaning and cruel question. I won’t bore you with any information on him except to say that he is dating Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

You are known by the company you keep.

I spoke in Liberty, Missouri yesterday at a fundraiser for local Clay County Democratic candidates. I started off my talk by telling the crowd that I am ashamed of my country and the groans and affirmations at the luncheon assured me that I am not alone.

The Zelensky meeting has coalesced into a collective shame that decent Americans can’t shake. The Missourians I met with yesterday are mourning not only the jobs and schools and hospitals we are set to lose, but also our nation’s reputation. Mourning any shred of decency left that we had desperately held onto. It’s gone.

We are allied with Russia at this point, and no one can read the news and have any doubt.

Clay County Democrats annual Winter Festival. 3/1/25.

I am angry and I stay angry and I can’t stop doing the thing that riles me up.

Keeping up with the news. Keeping up with the coup. Keeping up with a lunatic and his goons and cronies and thugs residing in the White House.

I can’t stop reading my Republican lawmakers’ posts and quotes and asinine quips. I wish I could say I had at least one representative that I can count on, but I don’t. From my Sheriff all the way to my Senators, I have Republican representation and it annoys me on some days. On most days, I can barely control my rage.

As ashamed as I am of my country, I am just as embarrassed by Missouri Republican leadership.

Both Missouri Senators Eric Schmitt and Josh Hawley tweeted their obligatory bootlicking messages to Trump after the Zelensky meeting. And I mean it when I say the tweets were meant for Trump — the messages had nothing to do with Missouri.

From Senator Eric Schmitt:

“It’s about time we have leaders who say what the American people are really thinking and prioritize the core national interests of America. The American taxpayer is tapped out, and President Trump and VP Vance are spot on.”

From Senator Josh Hawley:

“Remember: the U.S. Senate has repeatedly and for years voted BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine with no strings attached and with no true oversight. It’s time for some ACCOUNTABILITY.”

Oh, how I love to be lectured on accountability by the coward who incited a mob that killed five people while he still enjoys his Senate seat…

How did I find these statements? Trump’s folks at the White House have an entire page of fawning statements meant to please the would-be King on the White House’s official website.

Sickening.

And then I read this statement on the meeting from Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe:

Wait. What?

Mike Kehoe was just elected to Missouri Governor last November. He is a MAGA Republican who likes to fly below the radar and ran as a moderate. He may have seemed less extreme because he was running against a guy who put up signs all over the state claiming he would round up and deport brown people in the state, but Kehoe is anything but moderate.

Yet on the Ukrainian issue, he had a firm stance up until a few days ago.

Here is what he had to say about Ukraine. The statements were on his campaign website and titled, "Missouri Stands with Ukraine" initiative:

This initiative is in response to Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine," said Kehoe. "The message we want to send is simple: Russia does not share our values and Russian businesses funding Putin's war of aggression are unworthy of Missourians' money.

The fact is that Mike Kehoe didn’t need to say anything on the Zelensky meeting in the Oval Office. He could have just as easily kept his mouth shut and no one would have wondered about his position as a Governor, but that is not the MAGA way.

MAGAs need to kiss the ring at every turn. They have to bend a knee to a weak man who looked like a toddler unfit for the Presidency. Especially while seated next to a man who was once asked if he would like to be evacuated out of Kyiv when the war began and he responded with, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

That is the statement of a leader. One who will not back down and cannot hold his tongue when confronted by would-be bullies performing for the Kremlin while seated in the Oval Office.

I am an American and I won’t sit back while our country is taken over by Russian talking points spouted by Putin’s dog behind the Resolute Desk.

I am not alone.

As of this writing, there are no concentration camps set up for free speech. We are still free to voice our dissent on our new alliance with Russia. We are still free to protest and gather and rally around the Constitution — we can still call a spade a spade.

Donald Trump is a Russian asset, and Missouri lawmakers are traitors to America and the state. They are taking the side of a compromised American President and a dictator who had killed dissidents in his own country.

If we plan to keep our children and grandchildren from living in an authoritarian hell, we have to stand up now. We have to push back on the bootlicking scabs like Josh Hawley and the weak-kneed men like Eric Schmitt.

And I will continue to shame the Missouri Governor for flipping on a leader like Zelensky for a traitor like Trump.

~Jess

P.S. I will be speaking at this upcoming event:

The Rural Victory Dinner in Cass County, Nebraska. Ticket can be found here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ruralvictorydinner