Kansas MAGA honchos and their flock disdain democracy. Except when they can control who votes.

Recent developments have shown Republican leaders decidedly unenthusiastic about fairly contested elections in Kansas. (Photo by Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)

French painter Georges Seurat helped create the technique known as pointillism, in which thousands of tiny dots on a canvas combine to create an image. Up close, viewers only see minuscule daubs of paint. Stepping back, they witness an entire, vivid image within the frame.

Since writing about Kansas GOP leaders’ plot to cancel U.S. Senate elections, I’ve similarly seen a stark picture emerge from the static  of current events.

Unlike Seurat’s paintings, the image painted by recent stories about MAGA bigwigs and their supporters is anything but pleasant. It depicts a post-democratic nihilism threatening the shared core of American identity. Just in time for America’s 250th birthday, these extreme devotees of President Donald Trump want to end our nation’s history as a democratic republic.

This might may sound alarmist. But we could stand for more alarm these days, not less.

Let’s start with the daub of paint that is Senate Bill 105. You might know it as the Republican Legislature’s 2025 law snatching appointment power for U.S. Senate seats away from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. That was questionable enough. But an overlooked clause proclaims: “If the vacancy occurs on or after May 1 in an even-numbered year, then such vacancy shall be filled by election at the election of representatives in congress held two years following the year in which such vacancy occurs.”

In other words, if U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall vacates his office this year, Republicans could appoint his replacement and delay the election until 2028.

Experts have told us the law violates the U.S. Constitution. But it was passed nonetheless. The daub of paint remains.

But let’s look beside it. Let’s note that not a single Republican has refuted this clear reading of the law. Marshall finally denied any intention to step down on Sunday’s Meet the Press. But that took 11 days from our first reporting on the subject and followed nondenial denials from his campaign. Marshall didn’t dispute host Ryan Nobles’ characterization of SB 105 as taking “the power of picking your replacement out of the hands of voters.”

Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office has not denied the law’s intent and is apparently preparing further guidance. State Republican Party chairwoman Danedri Herbert has attacked those reporting and commenting on the subject multiple times — but she still hasn’t responded on the merits.

As the Wichita Eagle’s Dion Lefler wrote Sunday: “The following is everything the Republican Party had to say about why the scenario the news outlets reported couldn’t happen: ____________.”

Those specks of paint begin to line up on the canvas, one right after another.

 

Kansas Sen. Mike Thompson takes a call at the Statehouse on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Of amendments, state and federal

On Wednesday, the Kansas City Star’s Matthew Kelly reported about the whole SB 105 mess. Within that story, Shawnee Republican Sen. Mike Thompson — whose committee reshaped the law — railed against the 17th Amendment. You might know that as the one that requires the direct election of U.S. senators. Thompson believes it’s time for the Legislature to select senators instead.

You know, that august body tasked with representing gerrymandered districts throughout the state of Kansas.

Look a bit to lower on our metaphorical canvas. Just one day after Kelly reported on Thompson’s absurd statement, U.S. Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) introduced a resolution in the U.S. house to repeal the 17th amendment.

“Our Founding Fathers designed the Senate to protect state sovereignty and act as a check on federal overreach,” Self said. “If senators are supposed to represent their states, then the states should choose them.”

That resolution enjoys co-sponsors from Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Back home in Kansas, Johnson County election commissioner Connie Schmidt has decided to close eight early voting sites before crucial primary and general elections. According to freelance reporter Grace Hills, those locations collected 19% of early votes in the 2024 election. Schmidt’s office claims that the changes were made to provide consistent service.

To which I can only respond: “Hmm.” The vote on state Supreme Court justice selection will be on the Aug. 4 ballot. Kansans will pick a new governor in November. Both races could be tight, and a few thousand missing votes in Johnson County could tip either election in either direction.

More than 20 local leaders sent a letter protesting the closures. Johnson County Commission chairman Mike Kelly wrote separately, pointing out that the county had budgeted for all sites this year. Schmidt has told protesters her decision was final.

That doesn’t sound like promoting an even playing field to me. It sounds like a bureaucrat appointed by a Republican secretary of state kneecapping a Democrat-trending county.

In other news, a Johns Hopkins study of conservative beliefs across the country found that 14 of 21 participants “had an immediate negative reaction when asked about democracy.”

“I don’t like the word democracy,” homeschooling mother Sarah told researchers.

And an employee of CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss published a blog entry encouraging public debate over the tradeoffs that followed giving women the right to vote. As Dave Barry used to say, I’m not making this up!

An image manifests from the multitude of pointillistic dots spread across our nation. It doesn’t show a great deal of confidence in the people of the United States to select their U.S. senators, or even reliably vote in their own elections. It appears to depict members of one party changing the rules on the fly for partisan gains.

 

People attend the WorldPride International Rally and March on Washington for Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in June 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Fair and unfair, spoken and unspoken

Columns like this one make me sad.

I know that some people on the right — some Republicans — believe I’m being unfair to them and their cause. But I don’t think the concerns outlined above have anything to do with being conservative.

They have to do with whether you agree that Kansans deserve a voice in choosing their leaders. They have to do with whether you agree that the United States becomes stronger when more people engage or whether you believe that only the right kind of people in partisanly drawn districts should do so.

Which conservative leaders in Kansas will speak out against unconstitutional laws like SB 105? Who will denounce Thompson’s comments and call for retaining the 17th Amendment? Who will stand up for a system in which multiple parties fairly compete?

In the past, expecting hearty answers to such questions did not stretch credulity. Now it does.

As a gay man of a certain age, I lived for decades under opportunistic politicians who believed I was immoral or mentally ill. I still recognized their authority. I still consented to be governed by them, even though I found their beliefs abhorrent. I respected our democratic institutions enough to participate in a government that did not fully recognize my rights.

I did not expect that my government would always represent me well. Black people and women have gone through their own arduous journeys for full civic recognition. They did not turn away or discard elections when the going got tough. They instead threw themselves into the process, notching wins and losses along the way.

For the good of our country, right-wingers need to get with the program and learn the same lesson. Our government might not perfectly represent them, but that doesn’t give them the right to tear it down.

Belonging to the United States of America means accepting everyone in it. Not just those who watch the same TV shows or listen to the same music or collect the same firearms. Leftists, liberals, Democrats, centrists, those right of center and even libertarian conservatives have endured the depredations of MAGA true believers to keep our ship of state sailing.

If this mass of Americans decides to do otherwise, if they decide to join hard-core conservatives in their belief that our nation is no longer worth the heartbreak of fairly contested elections, then the pointillistic painting I imagined at the beginning of this column is not simply dark or ominous.

It is on fire. And it is burning down the museum of our country.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.