Back in the good old days of the second Obama term, we in Missouri had a ballot issue come up. Some rural car dealer from the Ozarks was involved in some sort of land speculation scheme, and the state supreme court ruled against him several times, so he said "fuck it" and spent a lot of money promoting a ballot issue to change how judges got nominated to the state SC. This proposal basically would have upended a nonpartisan scheme that's been so successful it was exported to most states since Missouri developed it in the 1940s, and is even called the "Missouri Plan", by adding one more partisan commissioner to give them a majority over the state bar commissioners. And the hilarious part was that he tried selling the whole thing as "democracy!" because it would ostensibly have put more power in the hands of the legislature... which is currently a corrupt cesspit full of guys like that car dealer because of a term-limits reform in the early aughts.
More broadly to my original conspiracy theory, though, is that if you ever drive through rural America, you'll notice a few things. One, there are car dealerships all over the place. And two, despite the handful of jalopies, most rural Americans have brand new cars. These are people mostly living below the median wage numbers that are inflated by urban wages. Typically the least educated, and most of the rural economy has been hollowed out in the last 50 years.
And yet, they're all driving brand new cars! Clearly, rural car dealerships are running a racket. They're selling cars to people who can't afford them, on terms just favorable enough to make the deals, and yet which keep them hooked on this constant merry-go-round of consumer auto debt. And it's all enabled by the state legislatures, which, like Congress, overweight rural voters. In fact, it's all one big circle (!): The only people from those areas who can afford to waste their time *being* legislators (or paying for their campaigns) are *the car dealers*.
From The Comments: Dave's Conspiracy Theory
From The Comments: Dave's Conspiracy Theory
From The Comments: Dave's Conspiracy Theory
I have a pet theory that most state-level corruption is motivated by rural and exurban car dealerships.
Back in the good old days of the second Obama term, we in Missouri had a ballot issue come up. Some rural car dealer from the Ozarks was involved in some sort of land speculation scheme, and the state supreme court ruled against him several times, so he said "fuck it" and spent a lot of money promoting a ballot issue to change how judges got nominated to the state SC. This proposal basically would have upended a nonpartisan scheme that's been so successful it was exported to most states since Missouri developed it in the 1940s, and is even called the "Missouri Plan", by adding one more partisan commissioner to give them a majority over the state bar commissioners. And the hilarious part was that he tried selling the whole thing as "democracy!" because it would ostensibly have put more power in the hands of the legislature... which is currently a corrupt cesspit full of guys like that car dealer because of a term-limits reform in the early aughts.
More broadly to my original conspiracy theory, though, is that if you ever drive through rural America, you'll notice a few things. One, there are car dealerships all over the place. And two, despite the handful of jalopies, most rural Americans have brand new cars. These are people mostly living below the median wage numbers that are inflated by urban wages. Typically the least educated, and most of the rural economy has been hollowed out in the last 50 years.
And yet, they're all driving brand new cars! Clearly, rural car dealerships are running a racket. They're selling cars to people who can't afford them, on terms just favorable enough to make the deals, and yet which keep them hooked on this constant merry-go-round of consumer auto debt. And it's all enabled by the state legislatures, which, like Congress, overweight rural voters. In fact, it's all one big circle (!): The only people from those areas who can afford to waste their time *being* legislators (or paying for their campaigns) are *the car dealers*.
Yes, I know I'm insane.