Democrats’ ideas are what the people want. So why do they play defense in Jeff City?

Troublesome legislative sessions in Missouri and Kansas have ended, confirming the truth: Unless and until voters are offered real alternatives to conservative orthodoxy, the states will continue their frightening march to the extreme right.

That means abortion rights, public education, public safety and health, and civic and electoral rights will be at greater risk than ever before. Conservatives’ 40-year project to impose their faith-based minority views on both states will have succeeded.

There are signs some Kansans understand the threat. A group called Prairie Roots is beginning the difficult, time-consuming task of talking with independent voters, urging them to consider alternatives to fringe legislators.

It’s hard work, and may not succeed. It’s worth the try.

Missouri is more complicated.

Democrats in the Missouri legislature have claimed success in 2022 because they were able to stop truly heinous bills from reaching the governor’s desk. The Democrats’ role is subject to dispute. Republican infighting may have been a more important factor in the dysfunction.

Democratic leaders insists they lack the votes to do anything but stall bad legislation. It’s all they can do.

But Democrats rarely consider why they’re in such trouble in both chambers of the state legislature. Why does the party hold just 10 Senate seats in a 34-seat chamber? Why do Republicans control 108 seats in a 163-seat House?

Part of the problem is simple: Democrats don’t run. In the 2020 general election, 50 Republican state House candidates faced no Democratic opponents. It’s even worse in 2022. The GOP will be close to a working legislative majority next year without lifting a finger in November.

But messaging is a muddled mess, too. Missourians know what Democrats are against, but have little idea what they’re for: They have given voters, even in urban areas, little reason to back their party’s nominees.

Kansas City-area Democrats say they were powerless to stop a legislative takeover of the city’s police and spending functions. A referendum is headed to the ballot exempting Kansas City, and only Kansas City, from the Hancock Amendment. Under these circumstances, why would any Kansas Citian support legislative Democrats with time, money or votes?

It isn’t an issue of opposing mandatory spending for police. Democrats could support a new look at policing strategies, spending, and crime rates across the state. With just a few exceptions, they have not done so.

Playing nice with radical right-wingers

This is not an isolated issue. A Republican Party willing to seize a city’s police department will have no trouble making women second-class citizens, or enabling gun battles on city streets, or eviscerating public schools and public school boards, or dismantling public health protections, or manipulating ballot access and voting rights. They’re already doing it.

Some Democrats have pushed back. Missouri state Reps. Crystal Quade of Springfield and Peter Merideth of St. Louis have worked hard for progress. Kansas City’s state Sen. Barbara Washington has waged an often lonely battle on the other side of the state Capitol.

But their voices are too often hard to hear. It’s frustrating, because the state’s voters are willing to listen: They’ve approved Medicaid expansion, medicinal marijuana, a minimum wage increase and organized labor rights. You’d think Democrats could capitalize on those results. You’d be wrong.

In 2000, the party controlled the governor’s office and both houses of the General Assembly. Today, Democrats are largely irrelevant. That decline wasn’t caused by aliens in a spaceship, or Republican intransigence. It was caused by Democrats always playing defense, apparently embarrassed by a progressive approach.

Refusing to rock the boat hasn’t worked. Playing Missouri nice with radical right-wingers hasn’t worked. We can see the results.

“It is time, now, that we start paying attention to state legislatures,” former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said recently. “Paying attention to the extremism, the craziness.”

She’s right. When Missourians start paying attention, though, her party must be ready with clear alternatives and an agenda for progress. This year’s legislative session was not encouraging.

This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 5:00 AM.