Want to know why Gov. Eric Greitens isn't giving up? Meet his supporters

[pstokely]

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article210111194.html

"Out here, where much of the town was burned to the ground by Union troops in May of 1863 and Trump took 6,533 to Clinton’s 1,707 votes in 2016, it’s possible to imagine that Greitens isn’t going anywhere. More than half of Missouri Republicans still support the governor, for now, so if you’re the kind of guy who likes drama and is not exactly risk averse, maybe you take those odds.

Of the two dozen Republicans I asked about Hawley, only retired real estate broker Jack Smotherman said the attorney general was probably right to ask the governor to resign, “because if he’s going down, you don’t want to go with him.”

Two others said they were agnostic on his response, and a third, April Mosher, who is married to the local sheriff, said she’ll wait and see.

Everyone else, though, answered by defending Greitens. “I don’t approve of what they’re saying he did, but it’s nothing the Democrats haven’t done,” reasons Robert Palmer, a retired carpenter who these days builds houses for Habitat for Humanity with other members of his church. His wife, Connie Palmer, quickly changes the subject to Bill and Hillary Clinton. “Somebody needs to find some dirt on her,” she says of the latter, whose popularity here is best summed up by the MAGA-style hats on sale in multiple colors: Hillary for Prison, they say.

“We want to see Greitens stay in there,” said Mike Buehler, the Vernon County clerk, who is up for re-election. “He admitted his wrongdoing, so why do they keep going after him? He’s still our governor, just like our president is still our president.”

No one mentioned that Greitens is not up on criminal charges for having an affair. But that Greitens has been accused of sexual misconduct almost seemed like a selling point, in that it’s just one more thing he has in common with Donald Trump.

“Yeah, it’s wrong, but it’s in the past,” said Justin Schultz, a personable young truck driver in a “Courtland Sykes for Senate” T-shirt whose pickup parked out in front at the county fairgrounds has 4-TRUMP vanity plates. “It’s kind of like everything with President Trump. The media is attacking him for things from 15 years ago,’’ Schultz says."

[hlthe2b]

1. Missouri has had some "awful" politics for decades, but...

I'd hoped the younger, progressive nature of Kansas City rebirth would pull more of the state at least centrist. But, boy do the reactive traditions of the rural areas of MO continue to hold the reigns. While the wealthy Kansas suburbs of KC may be uncomfortable with the direction Trump-lead conservatism has taken, they got their GD tax cuts, so....

There are some very good people in the rural Missouri areas who have struggled for decades as corporate farming has taken over the family farms. But, at the risk of being condescending, Thomas Frank's book "What's the Matter with Kansas" applies just as much to Missouri, if not more. They simply will not stop reflexively defending and voting regressive self-harming political choices. And yes, the border state status during the Civil War that continues to cause local outlaw Jessie James, the Younger Brothers, and the horrific murderous post-war confederate guerilla leader, William Quantrill to be idolized, is at play. That not- so repressed lingering confederate sympathy colors today's politics almost as much as it does in parts of the deep South.

[hatrack]

2. Sounds like Vernon County . . .

Still picking at those proud and cherished memory-scabs of suffering that happened to people other than themselves at the hands of an evil, evil government more than 150 years ago, while proudly flying the flag of that same government, 'cuz 'Murca.

[maxrandb]

3. You can always count on the media

No matter how fucked up something is that a ReTrumplican politician did, the media can be counted on to run out to Dumbfuckistan, 'Murika to find a half-dozen people to interview that swear the guy is "just peachy", or that what they did was exactly what the Democrats did.

Happens everytime.

Donnie Short Fingers goes out and brags about grabbing women by the pussy, the media will find 6 women from Dumbfuckistan, 'Murika to come out and say; "they'd welcome being grabbed by their dried out "hoochies" by such a "manly man".

No matter what, the media will make sure they find some hayseeds to play "everyman" from Dumbfuckistan to either ignore it, or praise it.

Jesus! Imagine if Hitler had a press corps like that....errr...sorry, I think he did!

[JI7]

4. These people are fucking trash.

[dembotoz]

5. Welcome to deep red Americans

Just like Deliverance but no banjos.
People in blue don't understand.
The hatred and stupidity is jaw dropping

[Blue_true]

6. People like that are headed back to the dark ages.

If nearby cities didn't exist for some of them to go work in, their rural towns would vanish. The world is moving on without fools like that, more so than ever.