Brownback’s inaugural speech full of nonsense

Gov. Sam Brownback’s second inauguration speech included an interesting solution to the economic difficulties in Kansas.

Apparently, the governor claimed, healthy families are the way to economic growth. Fascinating. It’s news to me that having a healthy family suddenly helps make the economy better.

Of course, I’m no expert economics expert, but I’ll hazard that guess for now.

The biggest moment in Brownback’s speech came from his statement about the “crisis of the family.” Brownback called for a renewed focus on the love of God, love of country and love of family.

According to Brownback, we need to talk about our culture and its renewal and things like faith and freedom that are “not as dictated by government, but as emitting from our hearts alive with a loving God.”

Again, I’m making an educated guess here, but being as Brownback is a devout Catholic, we can safely assume he is referring to only one God, the Christian God. It’s likely Brownback doesn’t want people following the word of any other God, especially if that God is a non-western deity.

Brownback claimed the way to fix the economy is to have strong families with core values. While not explicitly stated, the statement suggests only wholesome heterosexual couples who attend church regularly are healthy, given Brownback’s leanings on LGBT rights.

Unfortunately, governor, having a strong family and a belief in God is not going to solve all of our problems. To fix the Kansas economy, we need to do something about education.

Better funding for public schooling, and access to higher education is a way to start.

 Livable wages for Kansas workers will help fix the economy. In addition, Kansas workers need to know they are respected for the work they do.

All in all, the governor’s speech did not offer much in the way of solutions. It just offered Brownback’s stance on morals and principles, something he seemed to lack when he gutted funding for education and took away due process rights for Kansas teachers facing termination last year.

Hopefully, the governor will offer some actual resolutions to fix the Kansas economy. Goodness knows the state needs it. I won’t hold my breath for long.