Clean Missouri Hypocrisy
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (D) came under fire after releasing the names and partial addresses of her constituents in a Facebook Live video. The constituents, who had called on Mayor Krewson to defund the police, felt their privacy was unfairly violated. City residents were outraged, calling Mayor Krewson’s actions a, “sick and twisted abuse of power and political terrorism.”
Just two years ago they were likely supporting the Clean Missouri initiative, which expanded the disclosure of personal information in Jefferson City. The very thing that they deemed as “political terrorism”.
Clean Missouri was passed on the Missouri midterm ballot in 2018 and introduced a provision that allowed constituent and elected official communications to be public through sunshine laws. The provision was framed by Liberals as a way to improve transparency. In reality, this change violated constituents’ privacy. Missourians frequently contact their representatives to discuss sensitive issues that include family details, medical information, and financial information without wanting their personal information to become public. The provision could even prevent elected officials from diving into specific constituent issues, knowing that anything and everything they say can be made public.
Elected officials have the responsibility to support and respect citizens’ privacy. Clean Missouri’s language made it clear that a person’s right to privacy would be questionably violated, which is precisely why Republican legislators fought against this amendment. Republicans advocated for transparency between government officials with protections for constituent-to-elected official communication. Nonetheless, the same Democrats who supported Clean Missouri and claimed that Republicans were fighting against transparency within the government are now complaining about the release of “confidential” constituent information.
The policy director for the ACLU of Missouri previously released a statement in favor of Clean Missouri’s “transparency,” saying, “I do not think that communications that relate to the legislative process, communications that could have an influence on a legislator and how they vote, should be kept from the public eye.” In a complete 180 from their original statement, The ACLU reversed their position when the St. Louis Mayor recently used these communications, saying that her actions “served no apparent purpose beyond intimidation.” The hypocrisy of extreme-Left groups has never been more apparent—they only want transparency in government when it benefits them. Liberty Alliance is committed to calling out the hypocrisy of power-hungry officials that flip-flop their views on a daily basis.