kansas/brownback is a genuinely fascinating case because republicans really, truly got what they wanted in austerity budgeting, the whole nine yards and they hated it so, so much when people say "nothing they ever do will change minds no matter how much they fuck up" I think of kansas - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

rincewind.run • 6 days ago

kansas/brownback is a genuinely fascinating case because republicans really, truly got what they wanted in austerity budgeting, the whole nine yards

and they hated it so, so much

when people say "nothing they ever do will change minds no matter how much they fuck up" I think of kansas

Reposted from Aspen Junge

Kansas has a long history of electing R governors to Fuck Shit Up and then Ds to Fix It

Brownback slashed taxes and when the Laffer Curve didn't save him, tried to cut funds for disabled kids. Parents of disabled kids are ... FORMIDABLE.

Comments

thewesterhazys.bsky.social•6 days ago

It failed so spectacularly - everything worse than if he hadn’t done anything.

medianoche.bsky.social•6 days ago

whats funny is that iowa has been following that same playbook and are arriving at the same result and a lot of them are like

electro-chemist.bsky.social•6 days ago

Yeah, it was a good damn nightmare. It is truly a black mark on the state. The problem is that the Dems have no presence as a party here, and I'm saying that as someone who grew up with dem parents. It's also an easy state to gerrymander

steelwererat.bsky.social•6 days ago

Yup. I think the questions are, where is the breaking point, and to what degree is it possible to recover?

pocynum.bsky.social•5 days ago

I think the breaking point is past the point of recovery. Like, we all have this “scale” for points at which they will wake up and help us save the world as we know it, but because they take what we have for granted, they don’t realize that they could lose it, and won’t ’til it’s too late.

mardoch.bsky.social•6 days ago

Jindal did a lot of the same shit here and a lot of folks just sort of fucking pretend his disasters never happened and throw their hate on John Bel Edwards for shits and giggles instead. Impressive fucking mental gymnastics just to suffer for no fucking reason

okjess.bsky.social•6 days ago

So, as a Kansan, this is only partially right. The lesson KS Republican voters took from Brown back was to be wary of Republican *gubernatorial candidates only,* while continuing to vote to fill the legislature with people who think the Brownback years were great.

crary.bsky.social•6 days ago

I keep coming back to the book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" published some two decades ago, and how I feel like things have only gotten worse, not better, since then.

stephonnm.bsky.social•6 days ago

Same here. And I have no idea why they never learn, either.

aspenjunge.bsky.social•6 days ago

The way they behaved during COVID was shameful.

xandercrews.bsky.social•6 days ago

I was filled with so much joy and relief when Kelly won over Kobach but I could never have imagined at that time how important it would end up being. I still sometimes shudder at how much worse covid could have been here if Kobach had been in office.

aspenjunge.bsky.social•6 days ago

My college roommate went to HS with KKKobach, and she says he was an asshole then, too.

I wish people would stop voting for him. It only encourages him. Trump proved anyone can be President, and KKKris figures he's next.

electro-chemist.bsky.social•6 days ago

I accidentally ended up at a shoot with him and the asshole energy radiates off of him. Truly despicable person.

For a 2nd ammendment guy, he can't shoot for shit either.

rincewind.run•6 days ago

the line might be further than any reasonable person would set it, but there is a line, they can actually make their own partisans so miserable that some of them will lose their shit

sibr.bsky.social•6 days ago

Agree 💯, but the level of misery it takes is crazy

ryanhumphrey.bsky.social•6 days ago

Crazy, and not restricted to them. So very tired of being included in the finding out from other people fucking around. I didn’t need to find out! I already knew!

sibr.bsky.social•6 days ago

Solidarity 🤝

acinonnap.bsky.social•6 days ago

Their hate sustains them far past reasonableness. Depressing that people reset so often and have to learn the same lessons again and again

crs1.bsky.social•6 days ago

Collectively we’re just not that smart and what’s more we would rather be lazy & stupid than uncomfortable

repetitiveuser.bsky.social•6 days ago

It's the moment that goes from "lol voting doesn't matter none of this is real I want to piss off my liberal mom" to the golden sir meme.