Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wants to be the second son of a former Missouri Governor to also achieve that office.* Ashcroft seems to have been aloof from the three-ring show at the Attorney General’s office that has involved lawsuits against China, meddling in the elections of other states and, now, joining an abortion lawsuit in Texas—all of which by some twisted logic seem to involve protecting or advocating MISSOURI’s laws.
But with the passing of the 2022 elections, Ashcroft has left his moderate self at home and has started to show his stripes.
His declaration a few months ago that he alone can withhold state aid to public libraries unless they agree with his personal standards on what’s fit for your children and my children to read is scary. He seems to be most worried about the corruptive influences of anything other than stories about married heterosexual adults sleeping in separate beds (the Rob and Laura Petrie model of marital bliss). His proposed policy is worrisome enough on its own but in pondering the example it sets for his successors, we are gravely concerned. Suppose our next Secretary of State denies the existence of the holocaust, regardless of the reader’s age. Suppose our next Secretary of State is one who thinks the history of black people is not material to our well-being. Suppose our next Secretary of State reveals himself to be fond of Karl Marx and will take money away from libraries that have any capitalist literature.
His announcement of his availability to lead our state is aggressive, antagonistic, and—as it turns out—ill-timed. He says Missouri is at a “crossroads,” which is certainly true. We are known as the Center State, with as many states to the north of us as to the south and as many states to the east as to the west. But he’s not talking geography here. He’s talking about his own party’s failure to make Missouri a one-party state.
And it would not be surprising if some of his fellow Republicans didn’t feel like he’d gut-punched them when he said, “Red states like Florida, Texas, Tennessee, even Indiana and Arkansas have become examples of conservative leadership while Missouri Republicans, who control every statewide office and have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature have failed to deliver.”
As we recall, Ashcroft wasn’t satisfied last year that Missouri still has two Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and wanted new congressional district maps redrawn to reduce that to one by eliminating a district in Kansas City served by Missouri’s current longest-serving African-American congressman.
As for the legislative supermajorities failing to deliver, legislators of the red school might rightfully take umbrage. They’ve delivered a lot although some of what they’ve delivered has been ruled unconstitutional by courts.
He complains about career politicians who “talk a lot but don’t do a lot.”
The career politician is a frequent target of fervent successor wannabes who have not given us a definition. Perhaps he’s referring to a career politician such as:
State auditor 1973-1975
State Attorney General 1977-1985
Govenror 1985-1993
- S. Senator 1995-2001
- S. Attorney General 2001-2005
Yep, Jay Ashcroft knows all about the dangerous career politicians.
He’s also critical of “politicians and lobbyists in Jefferson City [who] slap each other on the back while they give our tax dollars to global corporations, sell out farmland to China, and raise gas taxes on hardworking Missourians.”
Right. Before the recent ten-cent hike (spread over several years) in the gas tax, the latest “big” gas tax hike was a six-center spread through four years (a 55% increase in the then-11-cent per gallon tax) that was proclaimed as “the great economic development tool of the decade” by the then-governor, the career politician described above.
Wonder what dad thinks of the swipe in his son’s candidacy comment.
Give our tax dollars to global corporations? Several years ago the state cut a big tax deal with a company called Ford to keep it building trucks here. Ford’s pretty global. There are no doubt other examples that don’t jump immediately to mind of such irresponsible use of our tax dollars.
Selling our farmland to China? How about leasing it? Bad idea, too?
Don’t be too critical with your mouth full. Smithfield Foods, owned by a company in Hong Kong—that’s in China, you know—owns eleven of Missouri’s biggest concentrated animal feeding operations and hires hundreds of Missourians to work those operations or process the meat they produce.
His announcement reiterates a commonly-heard GOP claim that, “It is the very rare occasion if ever, that the state spends its money better than families that it’s taken that money from.” There’s a lot of validity in that claim if you think social services, criminal justice, education, and our infrastructure can be financed with car washes and cookie sales while taxpayers keep their money and buy a new big-screen teevee.
His comment that Missouri Republicans have failed to make Missouri more like red states of Florida, Texas, TENNESSEE, Indiana, and Arkansas could not have been more poorly timed, coming about the same time the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature expelled two black Democrats who had joined a protest that interrupted a house session, while keeping a white representative (by one vote) who was part of the protest, too.
If Florida is going to be an example, does this mean Jay Ashcroft will take over Worlds of Fun if it disagrees with his political philosophy?
This critical examination of the words used in announcing his political intentions leaves this observer of the passing scene uncomfortable after reading his idealistic words reported by Missouri Independent in its story on his announcement:
“It helps that I was raised with the understanding that people being involved in politics is normal, that elected officials aren’t special. I was raised to understand that it’s about public service, that it’s everyday human beings that are willing to give up their life to serve other people and to make a difference in the lives of current generations and future generations.”
That is an honorable statement. I’ve heard his career politician father say the same sort of thing. But I am left wondering how to reconcile this kind of idealism with his angry, aggressive, antagonistic, and unsettling statement of candidacy.
Which is the real Jay Ashcroft? Which one should I believe in?
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*John Sappington Marmaduke (1885-died in office 1887) was the son of Meredith Miles Marmaduke, who served the last ninet months of Thomas Reynolds’ term after he committed suicide February 9, 1844.