Missouri Passes Progressive Ballot Measures

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

While Missouri has morphed into a reliably red state over the past quarter century with regard to candidates for political office, the show-me state can take a surprisingly liberal view of specific issues which make their way onto the ballot.

Over the past several years the people of Missouri have rolled back a gun "concealed-carry" bill that had been passed by our legislature (though it was later enacted anyway) and gutted a "right to work" bill that had been passed by our lobbyist-controlled, fundamentalist state legislature by passing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights of workers in the state to organize and join unions.  A couple of years ago we even enshrined in our state constitution the right of adults to partake in the  recreational use of marijuana. 

This year Missouri voters, while voting for the GOP candidate for President by a margin of over eighteen percentage points, also managed to pass some surprisingly progressive ballot initiatives.  First, there was the issue of sports betting (which I do not regard as progressive because the gambling industry targets the poorest among us and lonely senior citizens).  But nevertheless in a state with a high density of self-proclaimed, fundamentalist Christians, and in an election where almost three million votes were cast, sports betting managed to squeeze out a victory at the polls with just over four thousand votes statewide.

Missouri also had one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, again thanks to our rigid moral compass, the Missouri State Legislature - but a constitutional amendment passed by voters this year rolled that back and repealed the abortion ban making abortion legal in Missouri up to the time of fetal viability - while at the same time inexplicably returning anti-abortion zealot Josh Hawley to the US Senate!  The abortion amendment passed with 52% of the state vote.

And after ensuring Missouri worker's right to join unions just a few years ago, the people of Missouri delivered another victory to working people with the passage of a constitutional amendment this year that will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Missouri over the next two years and will force employers to provide earned sick leave to employees.

Missourians may have their collective heads stuck deep in the sand when it comes to candidates, but with policies that affect them directly, they seem to be paying more attention.