Striking Through Democracy

Last November, Missouri voters made their voices heard. Proposition A, which raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026, adjusted it for cost-of-living increases and provided paid sick leave, passed with nearly 58% support. It was a clear message from the people: workers deserve better wages and basic protections.

Yet, before the ink was even dry on the ballots, Missouri lawmakers—overwhelmingly Republican—began working to dismantle Proposition A. House Bill 567 (HB567), which recently passed the House and is on its way to the Senate, is a direct attack on the will of the people. Under this bill, the minimum wage would still rise to $15 per hour, but the cost-of-living adjustment and paid sick leave provisions were eliminated. Essentially, it gutted the very protections voters had overwhelmingly approved.

If you look at the bill online, you’ll see a long, long line of ink striking through 90% of the law Missourians voted to implement last November.

How can the legislature do this? In Missouri, statutory changes—like Proposition A—can be legally overturned by the legislature. Unlike voter amendments, propositions don't change the Constitution; instead, they create laws that any elected lawmaker with an ink pen can easily scribble out. I wonder if they find this exercise amusing—to eliminate a law so frivolously at the expense of the people.

The Corporate Squeeze Play

The Missouri legislature's betrayal of Proposition A is not an isolated event; it’s part of a broader Republican-dominated strategy to keep working people under control. They fight against any increase in the minimum wage at the same time that they cut regulations, allowing corporations to reduce worker pay and benefits, increase the cost of healthcare, boost the cost of critical drugs into the stratosphere, and undermine organized labor as it seeks to ensure an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Adding insult to injury, they’ve cut corporate taxes as well as taxes on the wealthy to the point that publicly funded services like education, food assistance, and even farm aid are cut. As a result, it’s become increasingly difficult for working-class families to survive. And as Senator Bernie Sanders often reminds us, 68% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They’re just one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. The resulting stress is breaking the American psyche.

Here’s the thing: Over the past four decades, housing prices relative to median income have doubled. Families struggle to make ends meet—forcing both parents to work and rely on increasingly expensive childcare to raise their children. Additionally, as the government pulled back its support for colleges and universities, advanced education for today’s younger generation is increasingly out of reach, limiting career options for young folks looking to contribute to our society. Yet Republican lawmakers, in lockstep with their corporate donors, refuse to acknowledge the reality of working-class Americans and their struggles to survive.

Instead, these lawmakers and their corporate handlers feed us a steady diet of myths—tales of the lazy poor, of fraudsters gaming the system, of a world where success is simply a matter of hard work. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” they say, and then they cut your bootstraps. These narratives serve one purpose: to keep the working class exploited while convincing them to accept any suffering as their own failure.

But it’s all a con.

The real scam isn’t welfare fraud or government inefficiency—it’s a political system that’s been contorted to extract every last drop of labor from the working class while ensuring they never get ahead. It’s about keeping wages low, benefits scarce, and workers desperate enough to enthusiastically accept whatever scraps fall from the table.

And then, the Republicans wonder out loud why young couples aren’t having children. It’s because the upcoming generation can’t even get started in a world where every last dollar finds its way to a billionaire’s bank account.

Missouri as a Microcosm of the Nation

What’s happening in Missouri is a reflection of a larger national betrayal. While workers struggle, our leaders in Washington make decisions based not on careful policy analysis but on personal whims. One day, tariffs are imposed; the next, they’re lifted—decisions that send economic shockwaves but are made with all the forethought of our golfer-in-chief deciding which iron to use on the next green.

The grim reality is that the people who govern us do not govern for us. The Missouri legislature, much like the US Congress, operates for the benefit of the wealthy elite. And the greatest trick they’ve pulled is convincing people that their votes matter—that their representatives care.

Proposition A proved otherwise. The voters spoke, but their voices were disregarded with contempt. The people’s law was casually struck through with an ink pen.

It’s time we face the truth: Until we dismantle the money-centric power structures that allow corporations to dictate policy, our votes will continue to be disregarded with extreme prejudice. The only way forward is relentless, organized resistance—because if we don’t fight for our survival, no one else will.

It would seem the Democrats are in a position to help fix this dire situation we find ourselves in, and indeed, there are some Democrats fighting the good fight. But I'm not going to try and convince you that Democrats overall are the knights in shining armor. On the contrary, many Democrats suck from the same corporate teet as Republicans. But there are stirrings of possibilities in the progressive mindset, which, for the time being, is anchored in the Democratic Party. There may even be traces of it in the Republican Party, but any Republicans with progressive thoughts these days keep their heads down.

Why talk about progressivism? Because it's the progressive mindset that conceived of Proposition A in the first place. It conceived of more healthcare for Missourians in need. It conceived of women’s bodily autonomy. All these ideas—and more—have been popular here in deep red Missouri, where a large majority of voters demanded these changes. It's clear that the Republicans don't respect the progressive mindset, as they either poke fun at it or label it as a socialist threat. The truth is that Republicans and their corporate handlers are terrified of progressive politics because the whole idea behind progressivism is to return power to the people where it rightfully belongs. 

The only thing democracy asks of us during this tumultuous time is that we take our grievances to the streets and relentlessly pressure our politicians—Democrats and Republicans alike—toward a people-centric approach to politics. The reality is that we can have a great nation. We just have to get off our sofas, get into the streets, and fight for it.

Because history is watching, and this is our time. This is our fight.