Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time

I’ve written about Progressives winning in political races across the country, and it excites me. I think we are seeing the future of the Democratic Party evolving before our eyes, and I am watching with bated breath as candidates with big ideas, and no apologies for these ideas, keep winning.

I am also watching this play out across the country while in a state with a near authoritarian-type legislature. Missouri has been under the boot of a GOP supermajority for over two decades. And I do mean under their boot. They are suffocating us.

I know what it’s like to vote and have my voice silenced by my own representatives. I know what it’s like to have my life threatened under a cruel abortion ban. I know what it’s like to send my kids to defunded schools. I know what it’s like to lose my health insurance and my access to healthcare. I know what it’s like to watch my paved roads and my sidewalks degrade to rubble. I know what it’s like to watch my state slip from a common sense democracy to a theocratic authoritarianism.

I also know that paternalism is a major factor in Missouri. Our state officials act as if they know better what we need than we do — and they are wrong. Our reps consistently overturn the will of Missouri voters and in essence, pat us on the head when we present a new amendment or proposition, and then do whatever they want…or rather, what their donors want.

As I write this, Missouri Republicans are trying to eliminate our citizen-led petition process. The only way Missourians have been able to fight back against the overreach of the GOP — we collect signatures to put a measure on the ballot, and when we collect enough, the measure will be voted on by the people.

This initiative petition process is the only way we were able to expand Medicaid and overturn an abortion ban and raise the minimum wage and fight Right to Work and legalize marijuana. Our lawmakers refused us on each measure, and we did it anyway at the ballot, which is why Republicans are hell bent to eliminate our process and our voices.

I am sick of it, and so are so many of the folks I speak to on a regular basis. The problem is, we keep electing Republicans who keep directing us down a bigger hole that is increasingly harder to get out of. After decades of defunding and dismantling, it’s going to take a lot of time to get our state back in order — back in the business of taking care of our citizens.

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But there is a problem separate from our Republican problem — there is an establishment Democratic problem as well, and it makes me a little uncomfortable to write on it, but I feel the need to say some things. As a Democrat, but especially as a rural Democrat. A dirt road Democrat.

Rural spaces throughout the country were devastated in the first waves of the GOP takeover — before Donald Trump and his ilk, we suffered under Republicanism, but also under the “moderate” Democratic leaders who tried to be as conservative as possible to win in this red state.

Rural ballots don’t need a “Republican lite” on the ballot when we always have a Republican on the ballot.

In Missouri, we haven’t seen progress in decades, but the regression is around every corner. And nothing will get better without the big ideas I am seeing in the new politicians across the country.

I am going to write something scary to some — the politicians I am talking about are Democratic Socialists, and I am supposed to be scared of them and their ideas. I am supposed to believe that I am in the big tent party while thinking progressives are too far left. I am supposed to link the term “socialism” to “communism.” I am supposed to be repulsed by the very idea of socialism, even if the word “Democratic” precedes it.

I’m not.

Can you imagine trying to scare me with the term “Democratic Socialist” while I live under a GOP supermajority that would literally sign my death warrant to force a pregnancy? They have defunded my daughter’s school. They have defunded our roads and healthcare and services. They silence our vote. They cheat and gerrymander. They have unapologetically imposed authoritarianism for two decades.

I am not scared of Democratic socialism because I have lived under a Republican-dominated legislature for over two decades. I have nothing to fear from the word socialism, and here is some good Missouri common sense to prove it:

This isn’t just New York politics, either. There is a wave of progressivism across the country, and I see it when I speak in Missouri and Iowa and Kansas and Nebraska and Illinois. The movement is often referred to as “Prairie Progressivism” or “Prairie Populism.”

It originates from the spitfire prairie progressives of the last century. The folks who led the way in workers’ rights and advocating for public schools and fair trade for farmers and healthcare. These folks often run as Democrats, but are deemed further left, though I am not sure that definition fits anymore. The new left-of-center is pretty much just common sense these days.

And that’s what voters want — common sense and policies that work. It doesn’t seem like it should be hard to convince Democrats that people want what the progressives are offering.

When someone tells me to be afraid of “Democratic socialism,” I have to wonder…afraid of what, exactly? I have seen it work in the happiest countries across the globe and the biggest city in the US.

In the end, this isn’t just a New York City movement. It’s not a trend. It’s not a phase.

It’s a movement of people across the country who are done being told to settle for less. It’s people who know that common sense should mean something again — something that actually improves their lives. All of our lives.

That’s what this new wave of progressivism is tapping into, and we aren’t scared. The Democratic Party should not be scared either. Progressives and Democratic Socialists belong under the big tent just as much as moderates.

Progressivism is just the simple belief that the government should take care of its people. The people deserve it.

~Jess