The image that conservatives project is an image of moderation. It’s an image of returning to a simpler time of family values and a better America.
The reality on the ground is much different. Radical Republicans own the party and are pursuing a Galt’s Gulch-like “utopia” first sketched out by extremists like Ayn Rand.
Governor Sam Brownback is one of several Republican governors trying to create Republutopia in the states. When even The New Republic says Brownback created a “conservative hell” you know things are bad.
What Governor Brownback has done:
• Cut $200 million a year from the education budget
• Established an Office of the Repealer to cut regulations
• Rejected federal Medicaid subsidies and privatized the delivery of Medicaid
• Dissolved four state agencies and eliminated 2,000 state jobs
• Gave out massive tax cuts which primarily benefited the wealthy
• Eliminated taxes on income from profits for more than 100,000 Kansas businesses
How is Republutopia working out in Kansas?
According to The New Republic:
During the first fiscal year that his plan was in operation, which ended in June, the tax cuts had produced a staggering loss in revenue—$687.9 million, or 10.84 percent. According to the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department, the state risks running deficits through fiscal year 2019. Moody’s downgraded the state’s credit rating from AA1 to AA2; Standard & Poor’s followed suit, which will increase the state’s borrowing costs and further enlarge its deficit.
The New Republic seems to think that Brownback's major failing is that he moved too fast.
When moderate Republicans joined forces with Democrats to block some of his radical agenda, Brownback went on the offensive against moderates in his own party with "generous assistance from Americans for Prosperity and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, which is also sustained by Koch Industries."
Eight conservative challengers won giving Brownback free rein and no opposition. He reduced the tax rate on the top tax bracket even more from 6.45% to 3.9%.
Revenue dropped 45% from 2013, 92.9 million less than projected.
I don't think The New Republic goes far enough. The real problem is not that Brownback is moving too fast, the real problem is that Republicans are fighting to turn the U.S. into Ayn Rand land.
Other states following Brownback’s lead include: Ohio under John Kasich, Michigan under Rick Snyder, Indiana under Mike Pence, Wisconsin under Scott Walker, Texas under Rick Perry, Oklahoma, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, and so on.
Most of these states just haven’t gotten as far as Kansas.
Leaders like Mitch McConnell want to do the same thing nationally.
“This is exactly the sort of thing we want to do here, in Washington, but can’t, at least for now,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Brownback.
I bring this up because you won’t hear about these efforts as radical attempts at cult-like utopias in the corporate media.
We should communicate these efforts as what they are: bizarre Republutopias. No society has ever existed founded on greed alone. The very definition of society used to be the point at which we stopped fighting against each other and started cooperating.
How many Republutopias have to fail before we realize the basic math that you can't cut income taxes to zero and increase revenue? How many Republutopias have to fail before we remember that we're a country founded by and for "we, the people"?
---
David Akadjian is the author of The Little Book of Revolution: A Distributive Strategy for Democracy.