Rep. Bell wins Democratic primary in Missouri; voters reject high standard for citizen initiatives
Meanwhile, Missouri voters rejected a pair of unique ballot measures backed by the Republican-led Legislature. One defeated measure would have required all citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to pass in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts instead of by a simple statewide majority — a high standard used by no other state. The other measure would have directed lawmakers to repeal the state’s individual income tax while authorizing a state sales tax expansion.
https://apnews.com/article/missouri-election-2026-primary-5226443026ad3b9a3e9a5979abb910a9Open linkView original on lemmy.world
20 replies
"Give the taxes to the poors."
It was basically, income tax goes away! We'll make up for it in other ways.
And those would be...?
If you come up with concepts of a plan, I expect you to finish that plan before I vote Yes on it.
Here before Missouri legislature chooses to implement the constitutional amendment change anyway, because fuck you.
and the tax one.
this is a pretty comprehensible outline of each US state's tax structure. it goes in depth as well, but what you're probably looking for is on pages 152 and 153 (that's their specific outline on Missouri), 204-205 (same as Missouri, but the US average) 24-32 (income tax features) or 33-35 (sales tax features). the pdf has chapters so it's easier to navigate.
in short, in the US nearly every tax is regressive [applies more heavily to the poor]. in states with no income tax, the poor pay a much greater percentage of their income toward taxation [all taxes, not just income tax. fuel taxes. sales taxes. property taxes, &c] than the rich do. properly built, progressive [applies more heavily to the rich and wealthy] income tax structures balance that out so everyone pays about the same amount. see pages 28-30
it's specifically why US republicans seem hell bent on removing income taxes
The article is framing this as a rejection of progressivism, could it not be more simply a rejection of the candidate?
Or we wanted a candidate that doesn't steal tornado relief money through a charity and won't answer questions about where it all went.
https://ground.news/article/squad-democrat-refuses-to-answer-where-tornado-relief-donations-went
Who rates that story? I don't know enough to make a call*, but I'd like to know more.
KSDK is a local outlet (owned by Nexstar, not better than Sinclair but had to check):
Cori Bush raised tornado money through a nonprofit with no public IRS record, and won't explain it before the primary
Emails show Cori Bush's PAC raised tornado relief money for a nonprofit the public cannot trace. Now the AG is looking into it
She's under investigation for hiring her husband as security:
Rep. Cori Bush is under investigation after hiring husband as security
Her husband was investigated for PPP loan fraud but a jury did not unanimously vote guilty. Along with the rest, this still seems suspicious. Still, it could have been a politically motivated investigation.
Cori Bush’s husband avoids conviction for pandemic loan fraud
All these were good reasons to be suspicious of her integrity. Refusing to answer questions about the Tornado relief "charity" is what really drove a lot of people away.
I agree it's not a good look. Neither is genocide. US electionarianism is utter garbage. We get a slight range of right wing candidates, but never, ever anyone who would make massive change that benefit constituents more than the super-rich. And that's why I'm a communist. I would like to add anarcho as a prefix, until fully and well-functioning systems are in place, and most of the biggest powers are AES states, but it's jumping the gun, right now.
I wish we'd had more options in that race but it seems like the DNC doesn't bother with Missouri so we haven't had much support getting a broader range of primary candidates. Our ocal groups are getting shit done without the DNC, though.
A little interesting development this election cycle, which, admittedly I only have anecdotal evidence from several large groups to support it: a not insignificant portion of Missouri dems voted in the Republican primaries to keep the most toxic MAGA candidates off the ballot. We live in a red state and can't count on dems winning in the general and it sucks we have to use this strategy.
Working as designed, imo (against you all).
Mainstream media needs to convey that your lying eyes are lying to you and that only centrist democrats are viable in elections. Obviously
/s
But yeah, it really looks like voters in that district don't like Bush, rather than this being a denial of progressives. She already lost this district before, it was unlikely she'd win it back unless the current guy screwed up really bad.
Cori Bush has a lot of unanswered questions about what she did with millions in tornado relief funds, supposedly in a nonprofit that does not exist. She also hired her husband, who barely escaped prosecution for pandemic loan fraud, as her security using federal money.
This was not a kowtow to mediocrity and People didn't "votr to support genocide", they didn't want to support an openly corrupt politician any more.
I'm extremely disappointed in Bush for all of this because it also fucks up progressives elsewhere if they have to talk about her bullshit.
Another win for AIPAC (that the DNC and their media arm of course frame as a rejection of progressive policy 🙄) and two ballot initiatives that would never even be considered in a sane and just system.
Congratulations on scraping the bare minimum that shouldn't result in a competency test on the latter and catastrophically failing on the former, Missouri 😮💨
It seems that district loves genocide
Either that or AIPAC ran successful smear campaigns that don't mention Israel at all, like they usually do.
Oh hey, look at that. I thought it was just my state looking to get rid of state initiatives. I guess the GOP and DNC have something in common after all.
Hey, it's the anti-washington account that has to shit on anything Washington does, which has gone as far as saying that blue states like WA deserved what was coming to them with ICE because of gun control.
I see you've now increased the amount of bullshit you say about WA, as you used to only shit on WA in related posts. Nice!
You think rejecting a poison pill amendment to voter initiatives is a bad thing? Dude, that's kinda weird. Like, did you not understand the text kinda weird, especially cause you're acting like it says the opposite of what it says (requiring every individual district to approve a ballot measure is just a fancy way to get land to vote)