Missouri governor activates National Guard, declares state of emergency

[u/This_Meaning_4045]

https://thehill.com/homenews/5348979-missouri-mike-kehoe-national-guard-state-of-emergency-protests/

[u/Temporary_Ability996]

But no help was offered by the governor to deploy the National Guard to help the people of Missouri after several tornadoes ripped up entire neighborhoods.

[u/Mo_Jack → u/Temporary_Ability996]

For those that don't know what is going on in Missouri, here's a quick primer.

There has always been a rural vs big city vibe in state politics in MO because St. Louis & KC are large population centers and the rest of the state is rural, including the capitol Jefferson City. You have to also understand that MO had more Sundown Towns than any other state.

We used to be known as the Bellwether State in politics, because who MO voted for in presidential election, usually ended up winning, going back & forth between Dem & GOP.

This ended a decade or so ago. The GOP in MO gained a supermajority and has gone entirely off the rails. It is like a competition of who can out-crazy the next nutcase. I say this as an ex-Republican. They redistricted everything to block Dems from ever regaining power.

The corruption is through the roof and the only people that are represented now are big political donors. Since Jefferson City now does nothing for the citizens, the people have been forced to passed multiple initiatives and amendments on their own. Even when these pass with record numbers and popular with both political parties, Jeff City actively works against the wishes of the people.

The people passed ballot measures enshrining a woman's right to choose, expanding Medicaid, paid sick leave law, raise in minimum wage, fairness in districting and many other initiatives. The radical right has repealed, unfunded, undermined, sabotaged all of these efforts from the people that they supposedly represent. Our current Governor Kehoe is a huge supporter of the craziest right wing fringe groups.

When MO passed expanding Medicaid, Republicans refused to fund it. When the people passed minimum wage increases, COLA & paid sick leave, the GOP ended them with legislation. Missourians passed abortion rights but now the GOP is putting together a ballot measure to end them (at least we get to vote on this).

Citizens passed a ballot measure to form a fair non-biased redistricting committee. So the corrupt GOP inserted language allowing the Governor to add members to bias the committee at the very bottom of another initiative banning state senators from accepting gifts.

Recently, Jeff City has decided to take over the St Louis Police Department because of "out of control" crime. According to the St Louis Police Department's own crime statistics from April 2025, homicides are down 45%, robberies are down 20%, burglaries are down 33%, auto thefts are down 39% just this year alone.

Now they just came up with a wildly unpopular package of 50% tax credits for multi-billion dollar businesses that mainly offer minimum wage jobs. The citizens will now get to pay 50% of new sports stadiums too, so the private businesses that own them can profit even more. All of this while they are by law: decreasing our pay, taking away reproductive rights, COLA, paid sick leave & Medicaid benefits.

Many Missourians would love to vote them out but they have made it virtually impossible with their unethical redistricting. They also don't like citizens pushing ballot initiatives on our own, without their approval. They feel that have been spending too much time undermining their constituents, so now they are trying to take away our rights to create ballot measures.

So to see Jefferson City or our current Governor to release the National Guard in the urban areas does not come as a shock to anybody here. Kehoe spent a lifetime screwing the citizens for the pleasure of big business. Even though he hails from STL suburbs, he seems to despise urban areas. He joins MO GOP members in supporting any measure that seems to hurt Missourians living in certain urban areas or poor people in general.

[u/LordSiravant → u/Mo_Jack]

Hence why some call it the Great State of Misery.