Thursday, July 27, 2017

Good News for Kansas

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

In a move that almost smacks of divine intervention, Sam Brownback, the failed governor of Kansas, has found a way to exit his state that doesn't involve tar and feathers - or being tied to a rail.  The Trump administration is offering him the position of Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, a position that, under the conservative Christian leadership of Brownback, is unlikely to promote freedom for many beyond the bounds of Christendom.

Brownback has always harbored aspirations to be President, and, in fact, he briefly ran for the Republican nomination in 2008.  He left the United States Senate after two terms in 2011 to become governor of Kansas, a perch from where he hoped to show his executive skills and take another shot at the White House.  As governor, Brownback aspired to instill some economic growth through the old conservative belief in "trickle down" economics.  He instituted a massive tax cut for businesses, one which failed to generate the growth he anticipated and which left the state in dire economic straits which persist to this day.  He will leave the state with a budget deficit in the range of a billion dollars.

But, free at last, free at last, and all that jazz!  Brownback will be able to leave Kansas under the pretense of being needed elsewhere to do important work in the grand scheme of things.  He can leave that billion dollar budget shortfall for others to worry about.

Over the past few years "religious freedom" has become conservative shorthand for intolerance and hate.   Don't want to bake a cake for a gay wedding - claim "religious freedom."   Don't want to provide your employees with an insurance plan that offers birth control coverage, again "religious freedom."   Somewhere there is a religious tenet just waiting to challenge any basic liberty.  Sam Brownback will now be in a position to help religious fanaticism conquer common sense and moral goodness.

True, Sam Brownback did not secure a major appointment from the Trump administration, but at least he found an exit - and, at long last, Kansas will be rid of him!

Free at last, free at last, and all that jazz!

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