Politics

Last Friday's Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the United States has produced a lot of outrage from religious conservatives claiming the court has overstepped its boundaries. The decision is a central assault upon marriage, says Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Sam Brownback's education cuts have become fodder for Doonesbury. I can't tell you right now how proud I am to call Kansas home.

In these days, when Republican presidential candidates are proud to deny the reality of anthropogenic climate change, and the Republican chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee is leading denier in all of Washington, it might be hard to remember the time a leading Republican spoke these words:

The issue of climate change respects no border. Its effects cannot be reined in by an army nor advanced by any ideology. Climate change, with its potential to impact every corner of the world, is an issue that must be addressed by the world.

California is dry. Really dry. Historically dry. Life-alteringly dry. Dry enough to bring out the political extremists, as if they had crawled up through those cracks in the ground.

It's a longstanding tradition in American politics that presidential candidates spend most of the primary season trying to appeal to the party's base, liberal or conservative. Then the nominees of both parties try to do an about face and present themselves as the more moderate and reasonable candidate for the general election. The thinking behind this strategy is that primary voters tend to be extremist, but most voters hew to the center.

In his recent column Why I Don't Like Bill Maher Leonard Pitts succinctly describes what is wrong with American politics today:

Washington Post columnists George Will and E. J. Dionne both wrote about inequality last week. Not surprisingly, they had very different takes on the subject.

Dionne has taken note of how Congressional Republicans are increasingly turning to rhetoric usually associated with Democrats.

Supply-side economists like to make a direct link between tax rates and economic growth. Forbes magazine's Ben Wilterdink, in a 2013 article, explains, "Rather than driving up rates on a small number of overburdened taxpayers, these states create an environment where people and businesses can flourish.

Jon Stewart nails it. When politicians can't determine whether an action is right or wrong until they've determined which political party is doing it, the system is broken.

The state of Kansas is in crisis. Income tax cuts passed in 2012 have failed to give the state's economy the "shot of adrenaline" that Governor Brownback promised. Now the state is facing a $648 million budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. The legislature has discussed several ways to make up the shortfall.