2015's Dorothy, Toto would pass on Kansas, stay in OZ
In Frank Baum's 1900 fantasy 'The Wizard of OZ', Dorothy and pal Toto spent the entire story braving great dangers to get back to her home in Kansas. Alas, if Dorothy were trapped in OZ today she'd be content to remain forever rather than step one magical shoe in in a state that would make OZ livable.
Let's start with the poster governor for bad leadership, Sam Brownback. As Governor, Brownback bragged he'd grow Kansas economy with one of the largest income tax cuts in Kansas' history, favoring mostly the wealthy. It busted the Kansas economy and budget, wrecking havoc on programs to help the needy. Not satisfied with that pain, Brownback turned down a $31.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up an insurance exchange as part of the Affordable Care Act, signed a bill that blocked tax breaks for abortion providers, banned sex-selection abortions, and declared that life begins at fertilization. Apparently for Brownback, a decent life never begins at any stage in life.
But Kansas' Secretary of State Kris Kobach may be even worse. On October 25, he was featured speaker at a writers' workshop put on by a white nationalist group The Social Contract Press (TSCP). It is a Michigan-based publishing house that puts out race-baiting articles authored by well known white nationalists. The press is a program of U.S., Inc., the foundation created by John Tanton, the racist founder and ideologue of the modern nativist movement and TSCP’s publisher. Tanton cultivates relationships with Holocaust deniers, eugenicists and other extremists, and is proud of saying: “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” Kobach has also been working with Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) for almost decade. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed FAIR as a hate group since 2007, because among other transgressions, its president Dan Stein has said, “Immigrants don’t come all church-loving, freedom-loving, God-fearing … many of them hate America, hate everything that the United States stands for.” Given Kobach's relationship with these groups it no surprise he's used racially charged efforts in recent years to restrict voting rights and curtail immigration
Getting Back to Frank Baum, Dorothy and Toto; their fantasy has nothing on the fantasy of Brownback and Kobach, channeling the Wicked Witch of the West in Midwest Kansas.
Let's start with the poster governor for bad leadership, Sam Brownback. As Governor, Brownback bragged he'd grow Kansas economy with one of the largest income tax cuts in Kansas' history, favoring mostly the wealthy. It busted the Kansas economy and budget, wrecking havoc on programs to help the needy. Not satisfied with that pain, Brownback turned down a $31.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up an insurance exchange as part of the Affordable Care Act, signed a bill that blocked tax breaks for abortion providers, banned sex-selection abortions, and declared that life begins at fertilization. Apparently for Brownback, a decent life never begins at any stage in life.
But Kansas' Secretary of State Kris Kobach may be even worse. On October 25, he was featured speaker at a writers' workshop put on by a white nationalist group The Social Contract Press (TSCP). It is a Michigan-based publishing house that puts out race-baiting articles authored by well known white nationalists. The press is a program of U.S., Inc., the foundation created by John Tanton, the racist founder and ideologue of the modern nativist movement and TSCP’s publisher. Tanton cultivates relationships with Holocaust deniers, eugenicists and other extremists, and is proud of saying: “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” Kobach has also been working with Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) for almost decade. The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed FAIR as a hate group since 2007, because among other transgressions, its president Dan Stein has said, “Immigrants don’t come all church-loving, freedom-loving, God-fearing … many of them hate America, hate everything that the United States stands for.” Given Kobach's relationship with these groups it no surprise he's used racially charged efforts in recent years to restrict voting rights and curtail immigration
Getting Back to Frank Baum, Dorothy and Toto; their fantasy has nothing on the fantasy of Brownback and Kobach, channeling the Wicked Witch of the West in Midwest Kansas.
posted by Walt Zlotow at 9:56 AM
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