Let's see if I can run all this down correctly. My home state, Mississippi, in addition to a dozen other problems, is currently struggling to understand bills as they're being read on the house floor. Keep your "illiterate Mississippian" jokes to the side, because it's not a problem of comprehension as much as it is actual, literal, understanding. See, the speaker of the house has decided that actually 'reading' bills into the record takes too long, so he has a digital reader 'recite' the bills at 10-15 words per second. The state supremes, asked to rule on the legality of such a farce, declined. So unintelligible bills will continue to be speed-read in Jackson.
In Raleigh, in my husband’s home state of North Carolina, what's being called far and wide the most draconian anti-LGBT bill in the nation was just passed. In a $50k special session. With 30 total minutes of debate. And jackass governor Pat "Koch" McCory signed it just hours later. In addition to the fact that Raleigh now holds supreme control over the kinds of laws cities and states can pass in regard to equality, protection, benefits, etc., it terminates all equal protection and access laws in the Old North State. Did you know that NC used to be considered a progressive southern state?
In Kentucky, where we lived for ten years, there sits a governor who has no clue how the legislative branch works, resulting in one of the funniest trending hashtags of recent memory. Finishing touches will soon be made to the gigantic, taxpayer supported, Biblical amusement park where Fred and Wilma Flintstone can teach your children how hard it was for them to saddle a dinosaur.
In Illinois, (15 months) the state still functions without a budget. Adult basic education is being cut all over the state, where its citizens have dire need of retraining after the exodus of manufacturing jobs. Higher ed suffers, while the investment banker du jour blames the speaker, and the speaker blames the guv. It's almost enough to make one miss Governor Goodhair. At least he was up front about his corruption... I think Rauner sold his soul before he landed in Springfield.
And then there's Kansas. We’ve been here a year and a half. Brownback’s "great experiment" failed, and the only person who doesn't know that is Sam. But the reelection fairy smiled and now he gets to continue to pretend that trickle down economics works as our job creation numbers lag behind the rest of the nation and we continue with regressive tax increases everywhere we can. Schools are planning how to shut down early again when they run out of money (which they will) and faculty in many higher ed institutions are learning that they'll no longer have state support in the event of an illegal termination. That may be less painful than the prospect of being shot by students angry about a C on their midterm, though, since we're required to allow concealed weapons on campus next year. It's literally easier to buy a weapon in Kansas than it is to register to vote (thanks to SoS Kobach), which may not bode well for the 'gunslinger' ticket. The only good thing for our students is that they’ll be able to target students they don’t like and kick them out of student clubs and orgs. So if the leadership of Enactus doesn’t want to have gay folks at their meetings, they can kick them out — no repercussions.
I figure at this point if we ever move again, it'll be to some so-called communist utopia. At least that way, when the anti-intellectual, trickle-down, weapon-toting folks come into power, there might be a little bit of a goddamned buffer.
