You see that nice photo at the top?
The other name for those trees is hedge-apple trees.
During the dust bowl days of the 1930’s the federal government figured out they needed to do this:
en.wikipedia.org/…
Roosevelt ordered the Civilian Conservation Corps to plant the Great Plains Shelterbelt, a huge belt of more than 200 million trees from Canada to Abilene, Texas, to break the wind, hold water in the soil, and hold the soil in place.
So, nowadays, as you drive across some parts of Kansas, you see a straight row of trees, stretching on and on, to your right and to your left. Then a mile down the road, you see another row of trees, stretching off to your right and to your left. Then, each mile, the same.
In between are mostly wheat fields.
Those trees are the Osage Orange trees.
Protecting the soil of the wheat fields.
I just wanted to give you a feel for the physical landscape of Kansas.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at, to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off Daily Kos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on Daily Kos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
This is our current schedule of regular IAN diary writers:
Monday: Youffraita
Tuesday: bigjacbigjacbigjac
Wednesday: Pam from Calif
Thursday: art ah zen
Friday: FloridaSNMOM
Saturday: FloridaSNDad
Sunday: loggersbrat
The little dog is named Itzl.
Now, we can take a look at some of the politics of Kansas.
Kansas Governors, spanning most of my lifetime:
en.wikipedia.org/...
Robert Docking (Democratic),
1967 to 1975
Bob Bennett (Republican)
1975 to 1979
John Carlin (Democratic)
1979 to 1987
Mike Hayden (Republican)
1987 to 1991
Joan Finney (Democratic)
1991 to 1995
Bill Graves (Republican)
1991 to 2003
Kathleen Sebelius (Democratic)
2003 to 2009
Mark Parkinson (Democratic)
2009 to 2011
Sam Brownback (Republican)
2011 to 2018
Jeff Colyer (Republican)
2018 to 2019
Laura Kelly (Democratic)
2019 to Now
Okay, so, the voters of Kansas are very willing to vote for Democrats, about half the time.
But what about the Electoral College votes, for the Presidential Elections?
Nope:
en.wikipedia.org/…
The last time the Electoral College votes from Kansas went to a Democrat, it was:
Then there was the abortion referendum, in August of 2022:
en.wikipedia.org/…
The 2022 Kansas abortion referendum was a rejected legislatively referred constitutional amendment to the Kansas Constitution that appeared on the ballot on August 2, 2022, alongside primary elections for statewide offices, with early voting from July 13. If enacted, the amendment would have declared that the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion, giving the Kansas state government power to prosecute individuals involved in abortions.
Well over 900,000 voters turned out.
Almost 41% voted yes, while over 59% voted no, defeating the Republican state lawmakers who wanted to ban abortions in Kansas.
Essentially, that was Democratic voters, giving a hard NO to Republican state lawmakers.
Ha!
What about the Senators we send to the U.S. Senate:
en.wikipedia.org/…
In Class 3: Bob Dole, Republican, 1969 to 1996
In Class 2: Nancy Kassebaum, Republican, 1978 to 1997
In Class 3: Sam Brownback, Republican, 1996 to 2011
In Class 2: Pat Roberts, Republican, 1997 to 2021
In Class 3: Jerry Moran, Republican, 2011 to now
In Class 2: Roger Marshall, Republican, 2021 to now
So, Kansas voters have been, so far, voting Republican, for President, and Republican, for the Senate.
But voting for Democrats is always possible.
Okay, who has been representing my hometown, Wichita, Kansas, in the House:
en.wikipedia.org/…
Dan Glickman, Democratic, 1977 to 1995
Todd Tiahrt, Republican, 1995 to 2011
Mike Pompeo, Republican, 2011 to 2017
Ron Estes, Republican, 2017 to now
See, for many years, the voters of Wichita and the rest of the 4th district voted for a Democrat.
Okay, you already know my daydream.
Let me spell it out again, for all these offices, for all these upcoming elections:
2024:
We need to elect Esau Freeman to the House:
freemanforkansas.com
We need to give our six Electoral College votes to the Biden/Harris ticket.
2026:
We need to re-elect Esau Freeman to the House.
We need to elect another Democratic Governor (Laura Kelly’s term expires).
We need to elect a Democrat to replace Roger Marshall in the Senate.
2028:
We need to re-elect Esau Freeman to the House.
We need to give our six Electoral College votes to the Democratic Presidential ticket (Harris/to be announced?)
We need to elect a Democrat to replace Jerry Moran in the Senate.
Ha!
There I go again, getting so many things off my chest.
Thank you for taking the time to read about Kansas politics.
Hugs!
