Views
Opinion column
by Murrel Bland
About 120 years ago, William Allen White, the editor of the Emporia Gazette, wrote a very outspoken editorial entitled “What is the Matter with Kansas?” This commentary helped make the young Kansas editor a national authority on politics.
I have read this editorial many times during the past 60 or so years. And it always amazes me how White’s words continue to be relevant, particularly today.
White was a progressive Republican from an upper-middle class background. His father was a medical doctor and his mother was a schoolteacher. He was very much involved in policy making for the Kansas and national Republican Party. Before he borrowed money to buy the Gazette, he wrote editorials for The Kansas City Star.
I spent much of last Thursday and Friday last week at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, attending the annual meeting of the William Allen White Foundation. Journalists from across the country—mostly with a KU connection– come to Mt. Oread annually to pay tribute to the famous Emporia editor, and to community journalism.
Get a bunch of editors together, and most often the discussion turns to politics. And last week was certainly no exception. The keynote speaker at the meeting was Jerry Seib, the Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal. Seib’s wife is Barbara Rosewicz who grew up in Kansas City, Kan.; she works for the Pew Charitable Trusts. Both are very loyal Jayhawks.
I asked Seib to compare the populist movement of White’s era to the Tea Party crowd of today. He said there certainly are similarities—however he said the populist movement of today is much more pronounced and considerably wider than during White’s day. Seib said the media and Donald Trump largely underestimated the extent of today’s populist success.
Seib said he does not expect Trump to have enough delegates to receive the nomination before the Republican National Convention convenes in July in Cleveland, Ohio. And if he gets the nomination, he said Trump will take other persons’ money. So far Trump has said he has self-financed his campaign.
Political pundits have speculated it will be Trump who will face Hillary Clinton in the November general election. Seib didn’t neccearily disagree with that prediction. However, he said one of Clinton’s biggest problems is a matter of voter trust.
White complained about the populists’ lack of political leadership in his famous editorial—of running an “old jay” for governor; a “failed businessman” for Congress; and “a kid without a law practice” for attorney general. White just as well could have been talking about today here in Kansas and elsewhere.
White concluded there really wasn’t anything that was wrong with Kansas that Kansans couldn’t solve. Despite White’s heavy use of sarcasm, he made a very valid point. The solutions to the problems of the day rested from within–with Kansans. That remains true today.
Last Saturday morning I heard more about the problems that the state of Kansas faces as Gov. Sam Brownback juggles state finances to find ways to balance the budget. State Rep. Louis Ruiz, D-31st Dist., delivered information straight from the state Democratic Party playbook, telling how Gov. Brownback is pilfering money from the highway fund and delaying payments to the state employees’ pension fund. He urged those who attended a legislative coffee at the West Wyandotte Library to vote for Democrats.
Rep. Ruiz also took a healthy swipe at State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Fifth Dist., and urged his defeat as he is one of Gov. Brownback’s most loyal disciples.
The League of Women Voters from Johnson County and the Kansas City, Kan., Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sponsored the meeting. About 40 persons, including a few public officials and those seeking public office, attended.
State Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, D-36th Dist., was less partisan than Rep. Ruiz. She said she didn’t care if potential candidates were Democrats or moderate Republicans—just as long as they were responsible.
Rep. Moore said that Gov. Brownback’s experiment of 2012 that eliminated income taxes on small businesses was a failure and caused the budget crisis.
Previously Kansas has had a balance among three taxing sources—property, income and sales. The often-cited analogy has been to a three-legged stool. Take one of those legs off and the stool collapses.
Rep. Moore said people come to Kansas because quality of life issues such as good schools. Kansas is not Florida or Nevada where there is no income tax; however substantial tourism generates considerable sales tax offsetting the need for income tax.
State Sen. Jim Denning, R-8th Dist., from Overland Park, in an interview on KCUR-FM Sunday, April 17, said Gov. Brownback may be changing his stance on the income tax on small businesses. Previously the governor said that reinstating this tax was not an option.
The legislators will go back to Topeka Monday, April 25, for the “veto” session. The session is not expected to last that long. The real action will happen after the Kansas Supreme Court rules whether the school finance legislation is equitable. Oral arguments on this case will start Tuesday, May 10, in Topeka. After the court acts, a special legislative session is expected.
Gov. Brownback and ultra-conservative legislators have been at odds for some time with Kansas courts; they are upset with previous rulings on school funding.
Rep. Ruiz warned that these conservatives will be supporting efforts to oust four justices from the Supreme Court. The governor could then appoint conservatives such as he did with Caleb Stegall. The four justices considered vulnerable are Lloyd Nuss, the chief judge, Carol Beier, Dan Biles and Marla Luckert; Rep. Ruiz urged voters to approve retaining these four judges.
State Rep. Stan Frownfelter, D-37th Dist., said he was disappointed because Gov. Brownback vetoed a bill that he had worked on for several years—it would make it easier for city or county government to deal with blighted property. Rep. Frownfelter said the governor killed the bill because he was upset with other actions of Democrat legislators in general rather than the specifics of this issue.
However, in a letter to the editor of The Kansas City Star Sunday, April 17, Gov. Brownback said he vetoed the bill because it allowed “local officials unrestricted power to choose which properties could stay and which they could take.”
Call them ultra-conservatives, Tea Party sympathizers or populists. They are a force today as they were 120 years ago in William Allen White’s day. Eventually a democracy will cleanse itself and more reasonable people will prevail as White suggested.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.