05/17/2018
A Letter to the Missouri Legislature
For the last several months, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens has been battling accusations of invasion of privacy. The day before trial, those charges were suddenly dropped. Some of the leaders in the legislature, however, don’t like the Governor and are preparing to use this, and other accusations, in an attempt to impeach him.
To the members of the Missouri legislature I write the following directly to you. Most of us are aware that once Eric Greitens became the party’s nominee for Governor, many of you were so angry you refused to vote for him. The people of the state, however, did not and Mr. Greitens won the election fairly to become Missouri’s Governor.
Let me repeat that for you. The people of the state of Missouri elected Eric Greitens to be our Governor. We voted for him over multiple establishment candidates because we thought he would do the best job. We heard the positives and negatives put forth by his opponents and we elected him anyway. We don’t care if he used to be a Democrat. We believe him when he wrote about how he became a Republican because he aligned more with conservatism than liberalism. Most of us welcome those who choose to embrace conservatism, regardless of when they do it.
So far he has governed in a very conservative manner and we believe the state is better off for it. He has eliminated excessive state regulations, cut spending, vetoed wasteful budget items, and put on a clinic in governmental conservatism. The majority of us were happy when he eliminated the Low Income Housing Tax Credit because less than half of it went to its designed purpose. This was a colossal waste of tax money and eliminating it was the right thing to do. If you want the tax credit reinstated then design one that actually puts the majority of its money toward its intended purpose.
We are happy with the way he handled the unrest in St. Louis last fall. The last administration’s actions allowed riots and millions in property damage. Governor Greitens’ actions resulted in a few cancelled events, a few arrests, and a total of zero riots. We don’t care if that upset activist groups. He said he would handle unrest in St. Louis better than his predecessor and he proved it.
Most of us couldn’t care less if he did or didn’t break a campaign finance rule when raising money for his election. We don’t care about donor lists and phone apps. Most of us laugh when we hear the term “dark money.” We all know most everyone does it and it’s perfectly legal.
We followed the court case in St. Louis. We realize it was a political hit job meant to get him to resign. We saw that after an extensive investigation, subpoenas, search warrants, and depositions, the prosecution found exactly zero evidence Governor Greitens committed the crime for which he was accused. At the last possible moment, the prosecution dropped the case. We know there was never any evidence he committed a crime and we were saddened and embarrassed to see the criminal justice system manipulated in such a way. We were more saddened and embarrassed when some of you called for him to resign over completely unfounded allegations. You claim to be conservatives yet you said nothing when witnesses were paid off, those who did it skipped town, investigators committed perjury, and witnesses changed their stories. You sat silent when a prosecutor weaponized her office to attack a political adversary and you failed to support him when he was railroaded for a crime there was no evidence he committed.
Some of you in the legislature claim to be conservatives yet you attack the most conservative acting Governor Missouri has seen in decades. As constituents we want you to stop trying to overturn the will of the voters and get back to doing your jobs like professionals. We want the legislature and the Governor to work together and stop fighting like school kids. Most Missourians are happy with our Governor and we want him left alone. We know who supports him and who doesn’t and we know when the next election is.
Jason Cote'
Kansas City, Missouri
And then there's the truth...
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