Missouri: A Cautionary Tale of Deterioration

Show Me the issues, Show Me who's responsible, and then Show Me the solutions.

“Why do you stay in Missouri?”

It’s a valid question and one I have easy answers to…my kids and grandkids are here. I am able to afford to live on a small farm with cows and chickens and hogs. My grandchildren can run in the pasture and feed apple treats to our mini-donkey, Gus. I can grow my own food and live in relative peace.

And, because this is my state too, and just like Gus, I am stubborn. I refuse to give up on my state just because some extremists in Jeff City have decided they will do the bidding of the wealthy to the detriment of my community and neighbors. I’m not going anywhere.

A selfie with Gus, my miniature donkey, living his best life.

You should know, the Missouri GOP is not a governing body.

The Missouri GOP is a group of loosely associated folks working for their wealthy donors. There is no plan or infrastructure for doing anything but paying back the political favors that got them into office. It’s not a unified party. It’s chaotic grifting.

What does that chaotic grifting look like in real terms?

It looks like public school teacher raises tied to private school vouchers. It looks like bills to expand birth control access stalled because lawmakers think birth control is an abortifacient. It looks like banning abortion. It looks like defunding cancer and STI screening for poor women. It looks like skyrocketing gun violence. It looks like rolling back child labor laws.

My state looks in disarray from the inside out. It wasn’t always this way. We have been on a trajectory toward the bottom in nearly every metric since the GOP won a supermajority 22 years ago. Let me show you the devolution of my state.

Show Me a school voucher scam:

Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a bill into law to raise teacher pay from 25K to 40K. Yes, you read that pay scale right, but here’s the thing; the GOP has had the money to pay teachers a livable wage for decades.

Why did they withhold the money and why did they decide to raise wages this year? Because so many GOP lawmakers have taken campaign donations from “school choice” grifters and these lawmakers had to make good on their promise to privatize public schools. These legislators tied teacher raises to a bill to defund public schools. They made the poison pill sweeter with a promise to finally pay the teachers.

Show me a women’s health care crisis:

There is currently a bi-partisan bill in the Missouri House, which would allow women on private insurance to pick up an annual supply of contraceptives rather than going to the pharmacy every few months. Studies show this increase in access can help prevent unintended pregnancy. Would you like to know why the bill has stalled? Because a few GOP lawmakers think birth control is an abortifacient. No, really.

Not to be outdone, Missouri GOP Representative, and State Treasurer candidate, Cody Smith just tweeted,

Tomorrow, we finally defund Planned Parenthood in Missouri.

Missouri has a complete abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. As soon as Roe fell, Missouri was the first state to outlaw the procedure. There are exactly zero abortions performed at Missouri Planned Parenthoods. ZERO. So, do you want to know what services are still available that Cody is proudly defunding from these clinics that support mostly poor women?

*Cancer screenings

*STI screenings

*Breast exams

*Vaccinations

Missouri is also ranked in the bottom for maternal outcomes, with Black women almost three times as likely to die during pregnancy, or shortly thereafter, as compared to national rates. We have a maternal crisis in this state and the only thing the Missouri GOP has done to address it is to defund clinics for poor women and force women and girls to deliver pregnancies to the state.

Show Me gun violence:

Speaking of bad outcomes during pregnancy, did you know the number one killer of pregnant women is domestic violence? Did you know that under Missouri law, a woman has to swear under oath that she is not pregnant to finalize a divorce…even if her partner is abusive? Both of these things have a lot to do with gun violence.

Missouri has the 5th highest gun death rate in the nation.

Since permit-to-purchase was removed in 2007, Missouri’s gun death rate increased 58% by 2019. That was coupled with a 2016 measure that repealed a state requirement for a permit to conceal carry and included Stand Your Ground language. Missouri now has the 5th highest gun death rate.

You should know that these were all policy decisions by the Missouri GOP. These outcomes aren’t accidents…gun death rates didn’t explode because Missourians are more violent or because our cities are more dangerous. The rate exploded because the GOP is adamant about putting a loaded gun into the hand of every person over 18.

Ope! Just kidding. The Missouri GOP also would not ban the open carry of loaded rifles by children in this state. Children may carry guns down Missouri streets. True story. Speaking of children…

Show Me kids at work:

A push to eliminate Missouri’s requirement for children under 16 to obtain official work permits before they can begin a job is now being debated in the House. The GOP included language to extend the hours in the day children are allowed to work, but it was removed because it conflicted with federal law.

Make no mistake — this isn’t kids working on the family farm or running a lawn mower after work. These regulations kept corporations who would feed on the cheap labor of children in check. Missouri lawmakers are trying to remove those checks.

If it feels dystopian from the outside, think of what it feels like on the inside. I won’t deny that it can feel like hell sometimes. That just by reading daily about what our legislators are doing can be traumatizing. Beware the cortisol and stress hormones.

Show Me what we can do differently:

Here’s the thing; in 2022, over 40% of Missouri House seats went unopposed. That meant that even if folks wanted to vote in their self-interest, they likely couldn’t.

This year? Only 18% of our seats will go uncontested. Missourians stood up. They drew a line in the sand and said, no more. We, the people, are sick of this horseshit and we are doing something about it. We won’t be silent anymore.

Will Missouri turn blue this November? No. Will it turn purple in one cycle? That is unlikely. Will we see a few wins? Yes. And then we do it again and again and again.

We take back our state from the extremists by contesting every seat on every ballot every cycle.

Remember Howard Dean’s 50-State Strategy? We are doing that, but in Missouri. It’s a 163 House Seat Strategy. A 34 Senate Seat Strategy.

This is the only way — the hard way. I know I’m not scared of hard work and neither are my friends and neighbors.

Time to pull out the overalls. Time to take our state back.

~Jess

P.S. If you would like to learn more about our run everywhere strategy, look at Blue Missouri. I am the executive director and a true believer in contesting every seat on every ballot. This is the way <3