TRUMP AND KOBACH
In a late morning tweet today, Donald Trump endorsed Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and GOP candidate for governor:
Bryan Lowry of the Kansas City Star explained the wider implications:
This endorsement surprised no one. Kobach has long been associated with racist anti-immigrant groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Kobach conned several small racist towns throughout the United States to pass constitutionally indefensible laws, costing these cash-strapped areas millions in legal fees. He continues to draw private income while the Kansas taxpayers pay him to ignore his job, or do it so badly that in June he got sent to remedial law school by a federal judge.
Kobach is so inept that he and his communications team struggled to understand the definition of “immediately” as required in the federal court case. The smarmy white nationalist is so incompetent at what he does but so good at selling his snake oil that he and Trump are, naturally, best friends. Kobach was once touted as a lead candidate for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He failed to land the job and spared us from finding out how craven his disgusting policies towards migrant children would have been. Kobach served as vice chair of the now-disbanded and woefully misnamed Presidential Advisory Commission for Election Integrity, a group which sought to back up Kobach-supplied Trump claims that “millions of illegals” had voted for Hillary Clinton. The commission was disbanded after being exposed as a farce and an attack on voting.
SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE
Trump’s endorsement is a new low for both, though. Kobach as Kansas governor would be in no position to enforce border policy. Presumably, Trump has never seen a map, because Kansas borders ZERO foreign countries, and is 1,000 miles away from Mexico and Canada. Kansas is 1,500 away from either the East or the West Coast:
Kansas is in no imminent danger of being run over by wild hordes of Canadian, Mexican, Jamaican, or Icelandic migrants. Regardless, Trump, Kobach, and the racist right via Fox News whip up existential fear to scare old white people into voting for rich people who want to end Social Security.
FEAR AND LOATHING AND SPORTSBALL
Kansans do fear invasion from one neighbor: Missouri. Kansas and Missouri are inextricably intertwined through history, born out of the privileged white male worldview which built and defended chattel slavery.
“Burning Kansas” birthed the Free State in fire and blood, its Kansas-Missouri border skirmishes eventually erupting into all-out war. Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence brought retaliation against Missouri homesteaders by rival Jayhawkers, so named because its members wore yellow spats as identification.
A century and a half later, this hot war which claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians has simmered down into a very passionate collegiate sports rivalry. The famous Kansas-Missouri Border War was fought for over a century on a basketball court. Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012, ending the yearly conference games, but basketball fans eagerly await news of an on-court resumption of hostilities. A “detente to resume hostilities” through a KU-Mizzou alumni basketball game is being negotiated, presumably as a prelude to a yearly matchup.
No chest-thumping or xenophobic fear mongering will change the fact that the only invasion Kansas has to fear is Mizzou Tiger fans from Columbia.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk!