Fright night Mo Leg edition

"I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution." -- Geroge Washington. In Missouri, the spookiest night of the year is filled with ghost stories, goblins, and all things that go "bump in the night". From the "Ladies in white" to the Ozark Howler fill the air with excitement and imagination of the possibility of stumbling across one of these mythical on the night of Halloween. It's the one night of the year that we tend to forget our troubles and enjoy spending time with family and friends looking by dressing up--with the hopes of finding some frights and thrills. But in the midst of our good time, there's something heavy tension that floats in the air as well. We brush it off as day-to-day life struggles to catch up with us, but the heaviness still remains. And we might not want to admit it, but that heaviness comes from the uncertainty of what will befall us in the political spectrum should the extremists get back into power. Well, let's paint that picture. Here in Missouri, the idea of a religious authoritarian regime is all too real for us. All you have to do is look at our abortion bans, wanting to pass travel bans and SAPA that are on the books that blatantly ignore the "Supremacy Clause" in the constitution. Plus add our ballot measures like giving the Treasure full authority over how to use our state funds, wanting to create a state police by taking away local control of departments, and wanting to create a private army by taking our state guard away from the DOT and DOD's authority. Scared yet? If not, buckle up because we have more to cover. Since the late 90s, churches have been preaching politics from the pulpit. I can remember when George Bush Jr. was running and the pastor at the time was telling us how Bush jr and the GOP were going to bring forth some kind of "divine plan". Then the infiltration of religion started creeping into the schools. They used to pass out tiny little new testaments to all the elementary students. That stopped in middle school but in my freshman year of high school we had "prayer at the pole" on campus and that was in 1998. Nowadays they send out permission slips to go with some ladies off campus to get bible schooled instead of getting an actual education. The irony with the scores of right-wing politicians screaming about "school choice" and "indoctrination is their party has pushed for religious indoctrination for years. In fact, a local school has an elective class dedicated to the study of "bible lessons". The layout for instilling theocracy has been in place for a long time in District 8, but now it's gone statewide and starting to reach the national stage. And now it's getting into our mainstream politics and smothering out any kind of sense of personal "liberty and freedom". I mean the abortion ban takes away religious freedom for the Jewish and Islamic communities in the state in hopes of becoming strictly of evangelism state of theocracy. Terrifying huh? Well, it gets worse when we start getting into our ruling super majority of Mo. Now I can't speak for every "red" state, but Missouri is quietly and quickly a state of full authoritarianism. And I get folks are so tired of the hyperbolic use of the despotic state and the partisan use of "democracy is in peril". But for us that live here in Missouri, it's no longer an over-exaggeration to gain attention in the "Flyover country", and as much as we wish for it to be the politics as usual here--The reality is we live in the "Banana Republic" of the United States. Our Attorney Eric Schmitt is currently being questioned about using his office to silence a political opponent. He tried to have a political ad pulled that involved a woman whose story made national headlines over the abortion ban. Then this woman and the hospital started to get investigated by Eric's office.[1] Of course, this isn't the first time Schmitt has been in the spotlight for this kind of behavior. He used the weight of his office to harass journalists and professors from Mizzou after Jon Turner publicly criticized Schmitt over his attacks on teachers and our education institutions [2]. But this is pretty par for the course, considering that our Governor Parson tried to have a reporter prosecuted for exposing the state's failings and leaving thousands of teachers vulnerable to identity theft and fraud due to having social security numbers in the coding of a web page.[3] Needless, to say that the reporter hadn't hacked the state and was cleared of the accusations of hacking. This was all in the past year if this tells folks anything. Unfortunately, I figure we can come to see more of this kind of behavior if the super majority maintains its control. That's not even counting the lack of accountability that runs amuck in Missouri state government when refusing to acknowledge or submit to the sunshine laws when folks make requests. Schmitt's office is especially bad about this. I mean all you have to do is ask my friend from Democracy on the Move [4] how that pursuit has gone, but I digress. Now let's talk about our Legislative branch's questionable methods that are surely going to the hair on the back of your neck to stand up. Missouri has been in a constitutional crisis for the past 20 years when the fringe groups of the GOP started taking over the main party in the 2000s, but it started to show back in 2010 when Prop B was more or less overturned and gutted after voters had passed it through the ballot. Then there was the "Clean Missouri Bill" that was completely overturned and rewritten-completely ignored the will of the voters. All the while our GOP in Mo Leg proclaimed that we were "too stupid to know what we voted for". One of these lovely lawmakers even went so far as to make a meme that included him and three others claiming to "Be federalists". Ironically, these lawmakers are supposed to be "conservatives". And if you're familiar with Conservatives, it's always been an "anti-federalist" movement or having a "limited government" stance since the days of George Washington. But what they're not telling you is that they're completely okay with "Big Brother" government providing it's only at the state level, and remain in power. Thus, the meaning of the meme. The scary thing is they want to make this a national platform. And from a Tweet, I saw last night they're opening and planning to do so. That was quite the scare jump for Halloween and no longer a trip as the realization of how bad this movement is and how much trouble we're in. For those unfamiliar with it-The state motto Salus populi suprema lexesto which means "The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law". This motto means very little to the ruling super majority given how they legislate. I mean some of their laws are racking up a body count that would make the Inquisitors of the Inquisition blush. Between the lack of regulations on CAFO/AFOs, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, and the Abortion ban--One has to wonder where the concern for our welfare is at? I mean these kinds of legislation are no different than what is seen in dictatorships or theocracies around the world. Now add the religious indoctrination in schools and the push to get parents to enroll their children in religious institutions for education. Never mind, folks like Laura Boebert and Margie Green are constantly going on about how "God needs to be in our politics" and the "church should do the legislation". Even the SCOTUS has shredded that very thin veil between church and state that protects us from that kind of tyranny. Needless to say, folks it's already happening in the state of Missouri. Now, the question is how do we combat this ongoing threat before we become a living interpretation of Orwell's 1984. Well the obvious is by voting is the most method pushed to defeat fascism, but the ugly truth is that is going to take rebuilding infrastructure and showing up to do it. Connecting with folks--finding a middle ground to see that it's not "us vs them" mentality. Start having real conversations on what liberty means and what we need to do to preserve it. We need to start telling our lawmakers enough is enough, start talking back, ask questions, and start holding them accountable for their actions or lack of depending on the topic. We need to start standing up for ourselves to be blunt and don't let them keep using the "fear" machine to decide our fate as citizens. Don't get me wrong, democracy isn't the perfect system and if you were to ask the Philosopher Plato about it, he would tell you that it can lead to extreme polarization which then leads to tyranny. But as imperfect as may be, it's all we got and our whole fundamental core is based on it. Washington's quote points out that he and others did not rebel against England for independence so the nation would have to experience the Inquisition 2.0 -American Edition. We are better than how our lawmakers like to treat us and deserve better than what we're being handed. Or better yet, Stand up before we all lose the fundamental rights that we are guaranteed by that old piece of parchment. Otherwise "American Horror Story" will be the new reality. As always take care and be good to one another, Much Love and Peace out, Jojo Citation: 1. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/10/28/democrat-alleges-missouri-investigating-hospital-in-retaliation-for-ad-critical-of-eric-schmitt/ 2. https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-schmitts-use-of-his-office-to-harass-journalists-is-a-dangerous-new-low/article_fa30581e-bd80-564c-9043-33a5eb699d19.html https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/columnists/kevin-mcdermott/mcdermott-big-brother-is-watching-in-missouri-his-name-is-eric-schmitt/article_456da0be-4463-58b2-ad9d-9e6a37ea87bb.html 3. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/02/23/claim-that-reporter-hacked-state-website-was-debunked-parson-still-says-hes-a-criminal/ 4. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/03/18/loophole-means-attorney-general-rarely-enforces-missouri-sunshine-law-on-state-agencies/