It is a testament to the extremist, corrupt and dysfunctional political leadership of Missouri that residents generally have to go around their elected representatives to achieve anything governmentally constructive these days. While the Legislature has been busy with right-wing virtue signaling to the Republican base over the past few years, voters have had to use ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage, legalize marijuana, expand Medicaid and more…
Whether legalized sports gambling is the people’s will is unclear; polls show as many as a quarter of Missourians are undecided on the issue. That, along with the Legislature’s typical inability to dig in on serious policy issues (as opposed to culture-war nonsense) makes the new referendum campaign by the Cardinals and other sports franchises a reasonable way to settle the question.
