Michael A. Smith: Kansas voters should go ‘pro-establishment’

From self-described Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to the outspoken, impulsive Donald Trump and right-wing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, it seems nearly everybody wants to be anti-establishment these days.

I have my doubts. Based on our recent experiences in Kansas, I would rather take my chances with the establishment.

As happens with the Rorschach blot in therapy, people can project what they want to see onto the term “the establishment.” If you are “feeling the Bern,” it represents a too-cozy relationship between the nation’s largest banks, Congress and regulators. For Trump backers, it means corrupt political, bureaucratic, judicial and education leaders, who, as they see it, impose political correctness by decree and fail to enforce the country’s immigration laws. I suspect that Cruz and his staunchly conservative followers see an evil establishment made up of pro-choice advocates, judges who rule in favor of same-sex marriage, and teachers of tolerance, among others.

Conservative Republicans in general think that their own party’s establishment has cooperated too much with Democrats.

The one point of agreement: The establishment is bad and must go.

Kansas’ recent experiment is an attack on the establishment hated by Trump and Cruz, which includes independent judges, schoolteachers, moderate legislators and budget/policy analysts. Gov. Sam Brownback may not use the term “the establishment,” but he certainly knows whom to target.

In 2012, Brownback and his political consultants swept out moderate Republican leadership in the Senate. These were mostly experienced senators, centrists who had a pragmatic dedication to good government. They saw government as having a role but wanted to keep it limited, doubting extremes on both left and right. Moderate Republicans perfectly embody stereotypes about the establishment: mostly middle-aged or older, skeptical of change, with long tenure in office.

With these fuddy-duddies gone, our new, conservative legislators cleared the way for extreme changes, creating perpetual budget crises, downgrading bond ratings, draining the highway trust fund, making the state a laughingstock, failing to deliver promised economic growth, and landing the Legislature in court over school funding.

Now comes the latest anti-establishment move: Why should these establishment judges be able to tell the less experienced, more ideological legislators that the laws they pass are unconstitutional? Down with the judicial establishment!

This seems to be the message of a bill moving through the Legislature allowing judges to be impeached for, among other things, “attempting to usurp the power of the legislative or executive branch of government.” Conservatives are also preparing a major push to turn several Kansas Supreme Court justices out of office later this year, when they are on the ballot for retention by the voters.

The claim is that the establishment stands in the way of change, so it must go.

Compared with this mess, careful change led by experienced public servants, wary of extreme changes, is looking pretty good. It is time to put competent, effective governance ahead of ideological experiments.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Michael A. Smith: Kansas voters should go ‘pro-establishment’."