On this date in 2014, 2015, as well as 2016, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, a man whose dedication to smaller government and lowered taxes has left his state with billion dollar budget deficits (annually), forced early school closures due to the state education budget running out of money before the scheduled end of the school year, and an overall dedication to Fundamentalist philosophies against abortion and LGBT rights that have forced the Kansas Supreme Court to step in, repeatedly. After repeatedly blocking the expansion of Medicaid in Kansas, Brownback released a statement that his opposition to the Medicaid expansion was that it would be “morally reprehensible” because it would help “able-bodied adults … who choose not to work” and would send money to “big city hospitals.” And Brownback chafes at any check or balance upon his power, particularly from the judiciary who he’s threatened to defund, as his leadership continues to abuse the poor and destitute, while allowing the wealthiest citizens to reach even greater heights of prosperity. Brownback still insists that it’s fine for him to conduct government business from his own private e-mail that is exempt from transparency laws, and only won re-election in 2014 with 49.8% of the vote, while other members of the GOP dominated at the polls, his approval ratings hover in the 30s, and several Kansas Republicans have turned to endorsing Democratic candidates rather than let his loyalists run roughshod over the greater good for Kansas. Kansas has had such a rough time of finding the money to run their own state that they were forced to auction off $163,000 of sex toys confiscated by law enforcement in 2015 to meet budget shortfalls. And when people actually report on how bad the plight of bad governance in Kansas actually is and how he’s been an abject failure as the state’s chief executive, Gov. Brownback claims everything’s fine, and it’s all just a “liberal conspiracy” to smear how good of a job he’s doing.
It’s such a conspiracy that Sam Brownback’s approval rating currently sits at 27%, which is second worst in the country for any sitting Governor, behind only New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who’s more noteworthy for his vulgar abuses of power and being a d*** about it. Already in lame-duck status going into 2018, Republican officials convinced Donald Trump to nominate Sam Brownback to be his religious freedom ambassador, one of the few appointments he has made to the State Department, and a job that requires Brownback to do little to nothing that would force him to resign as Governor, sadly. Here’s the fun part…The mostly ceremonial ambassadorship was only created in 1998 by House Republicans, and Sam Brownback was one of the Congressman at the time who voted for it to be formed.
As it stands, the coalition of Democrats and moderate Kansas Republicans has begun trying to undo the dangerous tax policies of Brownback, but Kansas still has a long way to go to come back from the damage he has done to the state. Hopefully, 2018 is the end of his time in elected office, and he doesn’t pop up on the presidential ticket in 2020 to try and make his perverted idea of conservative utopia a nationwide event.
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CSGOPOTD: Sam Brownback- 2017 Update
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