What do Kansas Republicans believe?
Published on -5/18/2014, 2:54 PM
I have been called many things for my commentary on Kansas politics during the past four years, but rarely have I been labelled a Republican.
I now publicly confess I am indeed a life-long, card-carrying Republican, born and raised in Republican territory, rural Harper County, in the small farming community of Bluff City.
My affiliation with the Republican Party led to my work with Republican officeholders in Kansas, as a cabinet officer for Govs. Bob Bennett and Mike Hayden, and as a legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Pearson. I have admired the leadership of Republicans at the national level, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan and Kansas' own Alf Landon and Bob Dole.
Given this background, I have watched the current crop of Republican lawmakers in Kansas radically depart from what have been core principles of Republicans. Their actions prompt me to ask: What exactly do Kansas Republicans believe?
For example, I thought Republicans believed in balancing the budget. Eisenhower showed the national budget could be balanced, an action rarely repeated since his time. Bennett and Hayden exercised fiscal discipline and carefully kept state spending in line with revenues while maintaining healthy balances.
In contrast, current state lawmakers proudly enacted reckless tax cuts, reducing revenues while allowing spending to grow. Before leaving town a few weeks ago, they approved a budget that by their own account spends $320 million more than is taken in during the budget cycle. Their action ignored news that revenues already are $93 million short of projections for the year April and likely will drop even further. Their financial mismanagement triggered a downgrade in the state's credit and might see fund balances plunge near zero within the year.
I also thought Republicans believed in fair and balanced taxation. Republican presidents, as well as Kansas governors, supported progressive income taxes throughout the 20th century. Landon campaigned for a state income tax in 1932 "not just as another tax" but as a way to reduce reliance on the property tax. As governor, he initiated a tax policy that moderated tax rates and balanced the tax burden among taxpayers and has been embraced by a long line of Republican governors and legislative leaders.
That all changed in 2011 when ALEC tax-cut guru Arthur Laffer came to Kansas. Republican lawmakers, led by the governor, now want to eliminate the income tax and shift the tax burden onto sales and property taxpayers. These lawmakers have adopted a tax policy that places more of the tax burden onto lower-income Kansans while dramatically reducing taxes for the wealthy.
Finally, I thought Republicans believed in Reagan's ideal of a "big tent" political party, one with room for a diversity of views, attractive to independent-minded voters, and with leaders who embrace Reagan's 11th Commandment: "Thou shall not speak ill of any Republican."
The Kansas Republican Party has abandoned the big-tent philosophy and largely relinquished its soul to a few ideological groups. The views of the State Chamber, Americans for Prosperity, Kansans for Life, and the State Rifle Association have more say in what state officeholders believe today than long-standing party principles. These groups control the party's agenda by targeting dissenters in primary elections and then disciplining those elected with single-issue scorecards and litmus tests.
And Gov. Sam Brownback has led Republicans in violating Reagan's 11th Commandment by joining with political allies and campaigning against legislators of his own party.
These Republican officeholders have turned their back on their party's history and on those who have shaped that history. This year's elections promise to be a watershed opportunity for Kansas voters to embrace or reject this radical "red-state" experiment with their future.
H. Edward Flentje is a professor
at Wichita State University.