Show Up Where You Aren't Wanted

Or invited...

I was walking into the local brewery and I saw a new Ford Mustang in the parking lot with “Missouri Senator” tags. I saw a truck with “Don’t tread on me” tags. I wasn’t invited to the event I was about to crash. I went anyway.

Americans for Prosperity was hosting local lawmakers on a tour around the state to promote eliminating the income tax. Missouri Republicans have written this resolution to eliminate the tax, but these lawmakers have not outlined how the tax that provides 65% of the general revenue would be dismantled without severe cuts to state programs.

Programs like schools, roads, police, and fire.

Americans for Prosperity is a Koch-funded “think tank,” so you can imagine the ideology they promote. I am very familiar with the organization and the local AFP representative. He is a local guy working for billionaires. He admits he is far from wealthy.

He said, “I don’t hear from the Kochs too often — I’m not invited over very much.” It was meant to be a sarcastic remark when I asked him who funded the state tour to eliminate income tax. I thought it was a sad revelation though.

I often encounter people who are barely making ends meet while promoting the agenda of billionaires who keep their wages low and healthcare out of their reach and their kids’ educations defunded.

The meeting was in Maryville. It’s a University town, a tiny purple-ish speck surrounded by cornfields and bean fields.

Farm country. Trump country. MAGA land.

I brought my husband and daughter to the event, but they stayed down on the first floor of the brewery. I can handle myself, and my husband told me before we walked in, “Jess, you know they won’t answer any question you ask. They never do.”

He’s not wrong, but I am a glutton for punishment and I can’t stop pushing back on what the GOP is doing to my state.

As I walked up, I met another local Democrat on his way up. He told me he couldn’t stay long. I knew once he left, I was on my own.

We were about to get our asses kicked in the Republican meeting — we are used to it. We are rural progressives — dirt road Democrats. We are the minority.

The second floor was full of people I didn’t know, so that was an indication that they weren’t Democrats. When you live in a tiny community, and are a rural Democrat, you know all of the Democrats.

There were 15-20 people at the event. I ordered a beer. I was going to need it.

*I don’t want to be whiny, but what I do isn’t always easy. Whenever I show up to a political event in my area, I will be in the minority. I am often alone. I am used to it, but it never gets easier.

Representative Bishop Davidson and State Senator Curtis Trent, Maryville, MO. 2/8/25

The meeting was held to soften constituents on the idea of passing a law to eliminate the sales tax. Admittedly, taxes and budgetary issues are not my strong point. I was an English teacher for years and just looking at the Calculus and Trigonometry my own kids brought home made me a little sick at my stomach.

Since I am no expert in taxes or appropriations or budgets, I went to this meeting to ask questions.

Missouri House Rep. Bishop Davidson of Republic has introduced House Joint Resolution 1, which may allow Missouri voters to decide whether to phase out the state’s income tax.

Rep Davidson told the story of how the HJR 1 was conceived and written saying, “I wrote it on my couch one evening.” I found that comment interesting as it seems completely refiguring the tax code for a state would take more than some late-night musings.

I know that Rep Davidson is young, so I decided to look into his biography to see how someone in their 20s could sit on a couch one evening and rewrite the tax code for an entire state. I assume the Representative is a tax whiz or economics savant.

Wrong. Bishop Davidson graduated from college with a degree in History and “The Classics.”

His employment history is a little dodgy, and I can’t find any evidence of work in economics, but I did find this: Representative Davidson interned for the Heritage Foundation while working on his BA.

So, he interned for the folks who wrote Project 2025. And he has a History degree and is in his 20s with his only full-time job being a lawmaker. And he was able to write a complicated tax bill on his couch one evening?

Interesting.

At the event, I started asking questions…several questions. I asked how schools would be funded since we already pay starting teachers at 50th in the country.

Rep Davidson took off his hat and explained how every piece of the hat is taxed — from the thread to the fabric to the metal gromets, and if we reduced labor costs and the taxes paid at every junction of making the hat, more businesses would come to Missouri.

What? Am I stupid or did he not answer my question?

It went downhill from there. When I asked if a sales tax would replace the income tax, Davidson said, “Eventually.” I asked if the rate of sales tax would go up — he said it wouldn’t. I asked if property taxes would go up — he said they wouldn’t. I asked how this math could possibly work?

There were many long responses to my questions with a lot of words and no answers.

Voodoo economics.

I listened as others in the room tried to make sense of the proposal. A woman in the back said she was a hair stylist and wondered about the tax on services. The lawmakers both answered her question with long rambling rabbit holes. The woman listened and then asked the same question again and received another nonsensical reply.

In exasperation, she said, “I guess you are lawmakers and know what you’re doing.”

But, that’s the problem — they don’t know what they are doing. They receive their legislation from organizations like The Heritage Foundation. They cut and paste bills from lobbyists and ALEC and Project Blitz. They can’t explain their positions because they can’t waver from the script and it isn’t truly their legislation.

And this is why I always push back. It’s why I show up where I am not invited.

As the meeting wore down, I wanted to let those in the room know just who supports eliminating the income tax without a viable option to fund everything the income tax currently pays for…it’s the billionaires.

When I said, “Friends, this tour is paid for by billionaires” one woman spoke up. I know her and she knows me and we are not friends…not even friendly.

She said, “I don’t give a shit who is paying for what and I am tired of people always bashing the wealthy when they are the ones creating the jobs.” And several in the room clapped at her response.

This woman once ran for office and talked a lot about her poverty. I remember reading a candidate survey in which she talked about driving to knock on doors in her 2013 Ford Taurus. And yet she is out here doing the work of the Kochs and the DeVoses and the Elons…

I can’t reach them all, but maybe one person in that room wondered why billionaires would pay for state legislators to tour Missouri trying to get voters to eliminate the income tax.

One thing a day. One person at a time.

I have to do something as the world burns. I am still hopeful we can put out the fire.

~Jess