GOP messaging on Kansas judicial selection amendment has a democracy-sized sincerity problem

Supporters of an amendment calling for the election of Kansas Supreme Court justices sound pretty hypocritical, writes our columnist. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

As early voting in Kansas continues, the Vote Yes campaign on the judicial selection amendment seems to have a messaging problem.

If you believe the yard signs and social media posts, the Kansas Republican Party is all-in on democracy. It wants voters to Choose Democracy and Vote Yes in favor of the amendment to elect our Supreme Court judges.

Unfortunately for them, not everyone is staying on-message. This amendment was introduced and carried last year by state Sen. Mike Thompson, the chair of the Federal and State Affairs committee. He is the same lawmaker who the Kansas City Star reported as wanting to end the direct election of federal senators.

To quote from reporter Matthew Kelly’s piece, Thompson’s arguments against direct elections were “echoing talking points put forward by critics of the Republican-led effort to switch back to directly electing Kansas Supreme Court justices.”

Maybe he took those criticisms to heart when he heard them last year.

Conservatives have historically avoided calling our country a democracy. I’ve seen the phrase “We’re a republic, not a democracy” used to shut down and discredit arguments in favor of democratic reforms such as the National Popular Vote.

This piece by Steven L Taylor goes into the history of this phrase, and how it’s become popular with conservatives. Earlier this year our own Sen. Roger Marshall gave an interview headlined “The Democrats are Destroying our Democracy.” In the transcript, he makes sure to say twice that we’re a republic, actually.

In his mind, Democrats are destroying our democracy, but also anyone who calls our country a democracy is wrong and doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Trying to wrap my head around these contradictions was giving me a headache, so I instead tried to understand what GOP officials and other Vote Yes supporters were really trying to accomplish. To me, the common thread is power. It doesn’t matter what they actually think of the Supreme Court nomination process Kansas currently uses. What matters is that the court is not ruling in their favor often enough. Therefore, it must be changed.

Viewed through this lens, the messaging out of the Vote Yes campaign seems more like something the cartoon character Mister Gotcha would come up with. You say you want more democracy yet you won’t let us gerrymander the Supreme Court? Gotcha!

It would seem unfair to follow that up with a Mister Gotcha of my own, but if it’s good enough for a statewide political campaign, it must be good enough for some guy’s opinion column. If the Vote Yes campaign wants democracy in our state, why is its ultimate goal to install a Supreme Court that will overturn our democratically affirmed right to abortion?

How curious! I am very intelligent.

I touched on this self-interest in a piece last year. It’s not a coincidence that the democracy Republican politicians want voters to choose is one that would give them more influence. I think that’s why their campaign is unable to articulate a more sincere message in favor of it.

If they aren’t careful, conservatives might start making the same arguments liberals are making for federal Supreme Court reform or worse yet, citizen-led ballot initiatives. Instead, all that’s left is to try tricking people with copycat yard signs.

Richard Pund is an electrical engineer interested in improving elections at all levels of government. He lives in Overland Park with his family. 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.