Do you remember Sam Brownback?
Ordinary looking guy, happened to serve as Kansas governor for a couple of terms. He resigned in 2018 to become the Trump administration’s ambassador for religious freedom.
He was also, for a handful of years, the great bogeyman of Kansas politics. His tax-cutting “experiment” led to unprecedented backlash, and his social conservatism attracted few independents to his cause. He was, as a matter of fact, the second least-popular governor in the whole United States, a fact weaponized by Laura Kelly in her 2018 race against human Dumpster fire Kris Kobach.
Now that Kelly is running for reelection, she’s eager to remind voters of the toxic Brownback brand. Messaging from the state party makes the case overtly, linking GOP candidate and Attorney General Derek Schmidt to the former governor. There’s even an elaborate website.
But do the attacks still pack the punch they once did?
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 2018. Strike that: A deluge has gushed underneath the bridge and weakened its very foundations.
We’ve seen a global pandemic that has killed more than 8,000 Kansans. We’ve gone through a toxic Trump reelection campaign that erupted in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. We’ve seen waves of extremists in the Legislature target public education, public health and tax policy.
Brownback doesn’t seem quite as scary in retrospect.
Don’t get me wrong: His tenure as governor was meanspirited and destructive. We’re still fending off policies passed during his reign that target poor Kansans. His Department for Children and Families made headlines for repeated controversies.
Yet Brownback at heart was an older variety of politician. He was the seemingly nice guy with a villainous streak, the true ideological believer willing to wreck his state’s economy in pursuit of Koch-approved goals.
We’re dealing with something far more toxic and nihilistic today. Republicans in the state and nation no longer pursue ideological agendas so much as the actual destruction of their political enemies. They have less interest in policy than the brute force pursuit of political power.
As I’ve written multiple times. Laura Kelly is a smart politician. No doubt she and her staff see an advantage in reminding voters about Brownback’s legacy. There’s no doubt that returning to his administration’s policies would be negative for Kansans.
But the real risk these days doesn’t come from a former governor. It comes from the folks passing laws right now.
