As the Missouri Republican Party makes plans to strengthen its already commanding lead over Democrats in state government, Gov. Matt Blunt, their titular and political leader, apparently felt emboldened to make a very condescending slur against the state’s major urban centers. According to Gov. Blunt, “You have to go to places where nobody wants to live anymore if you want to find Democrats.”
Gov. Blunt’s provincial view panders to popular, but backward, outstate thinking about St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia. His glib comment betrays an ignorance of the basic requirements for a sustainable, dynamic, competitive economy. These very urban centers he maligns are vital to fostering the technology and innovation that are critical if Missouri is to remain competitive in the global economy.
Not surprisingly, when Gov. Blunt boasts about his plan to drastically cut social welfare programs, he insists that opponents of his proposed budget really want a tax increase. Like many others in his party, he fails to understand the critical role that social programs play in protecting the vulnerable and saving many from the desperation that breeds crime and violence.
Right-wing ideology posits that good citizens are disciplined and have already become wealthy or self-reliant or are on their way to being so. Social programs, according to their thinking, spoil people by giving them things they have not earned and keep them dependent. Taxes, in the Republican view, take funds from the good, productive people and spend their dollars on those who have not earned them.
Given that this stern view is embraced by Gov. Blunt, it is important to see some opposition mounted by a diverse group of religious leaders. A spirited rally at Lane Tabernacle C.M.E. Church organized by clergy members and the Association for Community Organizations for Reform (or ACORN) on Sunday was followed by a protest on Tuesday organized by two interfaith groups, All God’s People and Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis.
These clergy are rightly challenging the governor’s declared intention to make deep cuts in Medicaid n a move that seeks to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. The speeches at the rally on Tuesday came from widely different clergy leaders. Yet every speaker asked the governor to reconsider his drastic budget proposal that would eliminate “working poor” parents from the Medicaid program if they earn roughly one-third of the federal poverty level. This moral appeal from a broad coalition of religious leaders is pointedly directed at Gov. Blunt, a widely-proclaimed devout Christian leader.
Hopefully, these protests n which cited GOP campaign promises to restore moral values to state government n will stir greater response from the grass roots. Too many voters in the state seem unmindful that the same leaders who invoke Christian ideals to proclaim “family values” and moral supremacy during elections then proceed to punish many of those who innocently supported them once they are in power. These clergy leaders are asking that these politicians be held accountable for policies that target vulnerable people who would lose the most under these harsh cuts.
Morality, the clergy are saying, is also a question of public policy. It is not enough to stand by your wife and your Bible, as Blunt did without fail during his campaign.
Importantly, these protests are creating new partnerships between private and public stakeholders. We could be seeing the foundation built for a powerful network of affected families in every county in Missouri n not only in those cities that Gov. Blunt so arrogantly scorns. This would produce a powerful advocacy base that could not be ignored. Let it come.