Recent Kansas editorials

The Topeka Capital-Journal, Dec. 26

As soon-to-depart President Trump flails about attempting something - anything - to change the election results from November, we should note a pillar of democracy that has stood strong.

Our judicial system.

Judges and Supreme Court justices on both the state and federal levels have given precious little oxygen to the president’s nonsensical claims of election malfeasance. They have weighed evidence, considered legal arguments and, in case after case, shut down the president.

That’s far from a partisan verdict, by the way. Many of these judges were appointed by Trump himself. What the president doesn’t seem to understand is that even judges of a conservative bent swear an oath to the U.S. Constitution - not the person in office.

These decisions should give us hope this holiday season. They show our country’s institutions can withstand a would-be strongman. The guardrails appear to have held, for now.

That “for now” is the long-term challenge we face. If the race had been less close - if President-Elect Joe Biden hadn’t collected some 7 million more votes than Trump, if the electoral college margin hadn’t been 306-232 - we might be looking at a different situation today. Imagine the contest was down to a few hundred votes in one state, like it was in Florida 20 years ago.

Are we so confident that the guardrails would hold then?

For that matter, imagine a president who was less erratic and more strategic (or who hired competent lawyers). Imagine a president who didn’t go off-script and alienate millions of people at a whim. If such a man or woman tried some of Trump’s tactics to overturn the election, would they be rejected in the same way?

We must, in other words, take this election season as a warning. The judicial system stepped up, and for that it has our thanks. But we must be vigilant. Our government is of the people, for the people, and by the people. That means we bear responsibility for those we elect as leaders, and for pushing them and our government to do the right things.

Trump drew in a good percentage of the American people when he ran in 2016, enough to secure an electoral (but not popular) vote win. He didn’t this year. The next time such a candidate appears on the public stage, we should all be more skeptical.

All of us must step up to join the judiciary as a pillar of democracy.

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The Manhattan Mercury, Dec. 23

The next school year will be a lot closer to normal. At least that’s what it’s beginning to look like.

The federal government has cut a deal with drugmaker Pfizer for an additional 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine, bringing the total now to 200 million. That will vaccinate 100 million people, since the drug requires two doses to work.

The government is forking over $4 billion in the deal for both allotments, with the goal of providing a free vaccination to all Americans who want one. The government also has an option on another 400 million doses.

There’s also a vaccine by Moderna, a second drug company, that has been approved and is being distributed. It was developed in closer cooperation with scientists from the National Institutes of Health. Moderna’s vaccine, which also requires two doses, comes under the umbrella of the government’s effort, called Operation Warp Speed. That public-private endeavor was designed to have millions of vaccine doses ready and available to ship once a shot received FDA approval.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement that the latest deal can give people confidence “that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021.”

That’s just in time to allow us to think about a more normal fall, one where kids can go to school. Students can return to college campuses like the one in our town.

Health care workers and the elderly are the top priority, and those shots are already being administered. Once that population is protected, the need for behavior restriction will be substantially eased. And then once the vaccine gets broadly administered to the general public, most everything ought to be able to change. Schools should be able to operate more normally. Football games won’t be a health risk. People can look forward to Halloween parties without feeling ashamed. Homecoming dance? Sure, why not? Thanksgiving could see extended families gather around a table. Christmas? New Year’s parties?

Yes. Scientists supported to the hilt by government coordination and taxpayer funding are giving us a chance to get back to all that. At least that’s the way it looks right now.

—-

The Wichita Eagle, Dec. 22

“With a heavy heart and deep disappointment” and fighting back tears at his council seat Tuesday morning, Wichita City Council member James Clendenin announced his plan to resign at the end of this year.

Kudos, at last, to the council member for acknowledging that he has “become a distraction from the critically important work” of the council, the city, and most importantly, the residents who elected him.

Now it’s time for a northeast-Kansas Democrat to follow suit, for the good of his constituents and the state.

A group of Kansas House Democrats rightfully has called for the resignation of Rep.-elect Aaron Coleman, a 20-year-old Democrat from Wyandotte County.

Coleman, an admitted abuser who once threatened to shoot a high school student and tweeted that he would “call a hit out” on Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, needs to join the resignation train - and soon.

It’s remarkable and regrettable that the community college student won a seat in the Kansas House of Representatives - and international notoriety - after admitting to circulating revenge porn and harassing girls online.

He’d be wise to take a lesson from Clendenin and former Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, scandalized elected officials who cut their losses and stepped aside.

(It bears repeating that state Rep. Michael Capps doesn’t deserve to hold public office either. And though he has stubbornly refused to step down, voters didn’t give him an option.)

Until this week, Clendenin, who was caught on tape plotting to frame a colleague for a false-ad campaign, had ignored a growing list of allegations against him and staunchly defied repeated calls for his resignation.

Tuesday’s action shows that sometimes, thank goodness, honor and responsibility triumph over pride and pretense.

“This is neither the time nor the place for discussing or debating the specifics of allegations being made against me,” Clendenin said.

That will - and should - still happen, because taxpayers deserve answers. If Clendenin and his buddy Capps submitted false information to secure federal CARES Act money, as an Eagle investigation found, both should pay it back and face legal consequences.

But for now, at least Clendenin has pledged to step aside.

“There are too many families, businesses and schools that are suffering,” he said, “and entirely too many of our residents living on the edge that need our city’s attention and laser focus.”

Indeed, there’s much work to be done.

Good for the long-serving Wichita City Council member for admitting, finally, that it would be “selfish and unproductive” to retain his elected office and taxpayer-funded salary.

The newbie Kansas lawmaker should do the same.