Brian Ellison

speaker

430 appearances 5 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 5 Aug

Brian Ellison’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.

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Up To Date · Missouri and Kansas primary elections are a referendum on trust in government · 3 Aug 2026 podcast

What does it do?

So um just hypothetically, or maybe not so hypothetically, the legislature could put an anti abortion amendment on the the ballot and it would require a simple majority.

But uh citizens could put a uh pro abortion rights amendment on the ballot and it has a much higher threshold.

Yes, exactly.

So so I guess part of my my question as a political scientist is what do you make of this?

I mean uh the no s n not every state even has this sort of direct democracy process.

It it's I don't know if it's considered fundamental to democracy, but as a political scientist, what do you see when you see this kind of proposal?

Right.

That some s some votes effectively count more than others.

So the other big amendment on the Missouri ballot is amendment five.

Uh this one is uh is about taxes.

Tell us what amendment five would do with a yes vote.

I mean, so what happens if the legislature uh you know, can't agree on which sales taxes to raise and essentially uh doesn't increase taxes?

D will income taxes then not end up decreasing after all?

And that and that's what what you you pick up in the uh the advertising and the arguments of opponents is that they that the kinds of taxes they're talking about, sales taxes on perhaps food or perhaps uh health care, those are things that affect uh disproportionately.

Uh they they affect everyone the same, but that means it has a greater impact on

You know, if we take a step back, uh let me ask both of you, uh as we we take a step back and say, you know, how does this uh how how localized are these conversations?

Are these just Kansas and Missouri issues that we're talking about?

Uh I mean and and Abby on the on the Missouri side, some even even something like the the tax question ends up being a question about affordability.

Well, let's l transfer the focus then over to the candidates who uh become the focus of those conversations about those institutions.

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