I'm Starting to Think You're Not A Good Person, Steve

A Second "How Not To Do It" Letter to An Elected

Feb 22, 2025

Dear Steve:

I last wrote to you on the first of the month. It's now the 22nd.

The occasion for this letter is a glow-up you received in the Kansas Reflector for your, well … I'm not entirely sure what it was for.

You appeared in a photo by the Kansas Reflector's Sherman Smith looking hound-dog disappointed when special education funding was not raised as high as you say you would have liked.

*Howndog (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)*

Per Tim Carpenter's write-up, you said,

I want to represent students of my district and their families — students like Murray, who is confined to a wheelchair. I think about people I know and people I’m neighbors with and people their kids go to school with my kids and the teachers that do come alongside them to support them.

and

My motivation is the ability to come alongside our school kids and their families and to support them and equip them. I didn’t come here to play political games or to get likes on Facebook. I’m not insinuating that anybody here is motivated by that, but I just don’t participate in that. I don’t understand all the politics that go on here at the Capitol.

Carpenter wrote,

Rep. Steven Howe’s disappointment that state appropriations to school districts for special education hadn’t kept pace with legal thresholds for the past 14 years reflected a personal connection with students grappling with developmental, emotional, hearing or vision disabilities in the classroom … During debate on House spending priorities, Howe said he contemplated offering an amendment to amplify state aid to special education. He said there were House colleagues who would be upset by his decision, but he was convinced the amendment had no chance of passing.

So, as sad as you may be, you—or at least your campaign manager—must be pleased with that coverage. I mean, come on: you came across as one of the biggest compassionate conservatives since George W. coined the phrase.

When I spoke of you cynically to an education advocate I know (alright, fine! I cannot tell a lie—I called you a “douchenozzle”), their response was shock: But he spoke in favor of the SPED funding!

Yeah, but what good is that, except for Steven Howe? He tugged some heartstrings. He made himself look caring. He said he thought about offering an amendment to increase the funding, but didn't, “because he figured it was doomed.”1

So thoughts and wants and motivations, basically.

From where I sit, it looks like you remain a member in good standing of a political party—the Republican one—which you have served well. You used to work for Jerry Moran. Then you worked for Tim Huelskamp. And now you're an elected state representative from my town, Salina, with an R behind your name.

I mention this because it’s primarily the fault of the Kansas Republican Party that funding for special education in our state is still not meeting the legally required need.

I lay this at your party's feet, mainly, because y'all have been so very successful in dominating the Kansas legislature since, well … honestly, I can't remember a time in my life when you folks didn't dominate the Kansas legislature. The party in power loves to be in power, but when you're in power, chronic shortfalls affecting kids with special needs really can't be blamed on anybody else

You can cite past budget shortfalls, but some of us are old enough to remember Republican Sam Brownback's fun little experiment with the Kansas economy that helped cause a lot of those shortfalls, which experiment, it seems, your party's current legislative leadership is determined to resurrect in some form or another.

It's your party that's once again killed Medicaid expansion, despite everybody and their dog living here saying they want it. So bring on some more disabilities you care so much about.

It’s your party pushing HB 2311—

prohibiting the secretary [of DCF] from adopting and enforcing policies for placement, custody or appointment of a custodian that may conflict with sincerely held religious or moral beliefs regarding sexual orientation or gender identity; creating a right of action for violations against the secretary for children and families.

So now fosters and adoptive parents who self-righteously hate gay and/or trans kids can sue if they aren’t treated exactly the same as accepting folks by DCF, literally endangering the health and lives of kids who don’t fit binary and bigoted norms. Cue the trauma from gaslighting and religious abuse and “conversion” “therapies,” which can permanently change brains, the self-harm, the runaways, the living on the street and all the dangers that life is prey to, the distrust of the system that’s supposed to protect them—and the downstream, increased likelihood of severe emotional and behavioral problems, or…you might term them, “disabilities.”

Rep. Susan Ruiz even tried to amend that bill just to reiterate that the best interest of the child would be the guiding principle for DCF, and your party shot her down.

You voted with your party in both instances, Steve.2 Yet you told us:

I think about people I know and people I’m neighbors with and people their kids go to school with my kids and the teachers that do come alongside them to support them.

I guess that tells us a lot about your circle of friends and neighbors, et al.

It’s also your party that’s gung-ho to privatize education, witness the voucher bills the Kansas legislature continually takes up.

Private schools don't have to trouble themselves with labor- and time-intensive disabled kids if they really don't want to, but the public schools do. At the very least, reduced scrutiny and oversight of private schools makes for scads of hidden ways these institutions can game systems to discourage or drive out "difficult" or "less desirable" pupils. And high-dollar prestige academies that pride themselves on test scores probably aren't loving the idea of having to take in kids with learning disabilities.

But your Republican-dominated chamber will be taking up Senate Bill 87, expanding "scholarships" to private, often religious schools—yet another step toward voucherization—thanks to the Republican-dominated senate passing it 24 to 16.

And I don't think the Democrats were the driving force behind this year’s (cough—VOUCHER!—cough) Education Opportunity Tax Credit that would send public dollars to private schools.

Wait, there’s more!

Our very Republican, and very unwell, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has joined Kansas to the Texas v. Becerra case. Kobach and 16 other state AGs so hate the idea of helping trans kids (or so hate the existence of trans kids, or hate the idea of trans kids) that they’re trying to get the entirety of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 declared unconstitutional, thus null and void.

Section 504, of course, prohibits all entities that receive federal funding from discriminating against disabled people, requires that reasonable accommodations be provided, all that stuff. So, in their fervor to exterminate transness, they are throwing every disabled person under the bus. (Here’s a Time Magazine article on the matter, written by a Kansan, I recommend.)

So have you leveraged your deep care for disabled kids and their families and supportive teachers to speak out—in any way, shape, or form that we can document—against what our clout-chasing, racist, scammer of an AG is arguing?

Then there are the national figures famous for their support of educational privatization (Betsy DeVos comes to mind, though I try to keep her out). Or the national figures in the present administration who seem hellbent on either increasing the ranks of those who are or will become disabled (HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) or further dehumanizing the disabled as "unproductive burdens" on taxpayers.

Then there was that politically polarized pandemic we had, COVID. While there definitely were some lefty crunchy loons out there (most of whom got radicalized to the Right by it), it was the GOP folks who fought tooth and nail against all sane public health measures and mandates. Why bring this up? Because Long COVID looks like it is barely beginning to be understood and will likely spell a huge increase in chronic and debilitating health problems extending way into the future. So: thanks for even more disabilities, Republicans!

Share Know Your Place

Now—I do remember that you were bullish on Donald Trump this last time around, and you kinda-sorta suggested that your fellow Kansas Republicans search their consciences as to whether he was truly fit to carry the mantle of Lincoln and Eisenhower.

But then, after reaping some good will that maybe not all the members of the Salina delegation to the statehouse were certified QAnon loons, you pivoted and voted for him, on the grounds that “he has the superior executive leadership experience to lead our country for the next four years.”

It’s been about a month under this “superior executive leadership,” Steve. I don’t know if there’s a circle of hell reserved for understatement, but if so, I’m doomed when I say things are not looking great.

Your signature achievement last session was to misrepresent and ban Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies at higher ed institutions in Kansas, thus giving aid, comfort, and a material, electoral, and propagandistic boost to the re-election of Mr. Trump.

Trump's anti-DEI Executive Orders are not only demonizing D, E, and I, but also A—that is, Accessibility—something rather important to the disabled kids and their supportive parents you care so much about. In fact, he blamed the disabled for the crash of Flight 5342 over the Potomac, the one that killed at least seven of your fellow Kansans.

Ah, but you did write that opinion piece. You did say—in January 2024, before completely reversing yourself—you thought he was unfit. So brave. Such an iconoclast. What a maverick.

But given your deep care and sympathy for disabled kids and their families, I have to ask about this episode:

It occurred in 2015. You were working for Tim Huelskamp then. (Tim went on to join a think tank that pushes vouchers and privatization more widely. Now he works for a Catholic PAC that blasted lies via text to try to fool people into supporting the abortion-ban-permitting post-Dobbs constitutional amendment vote in Kansas.) NeverTrump Republicans were beginning to coalesce by this point, Steve. You got elected in 2020.

None of this factored into your general election votes in 2016, 2020, or 2024?

As for SPED funding, which you claim to care about, we don't have far to look for the mask-off Republican contingent claiming tears like yours are crocodilian.

Why, it's Dave Trabert, a voucher crusader, prolific author for the cause at the far-right Sentinel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kansas Policy Institute, whose CEO Dave is.

KPI is, of course, a Koch Industries/Cato Institute offspring. Koch Industries also pretty much owns and operates your party's Speaker of the House, Dan Hawkins, and the Senate President, Ty Masterson. And these guys rule the statehouse with iron fists.

KPI is affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (they who xerox model bills for y'all to introduce every year so things like anti-trans legislation can sweep the nation as if it’s a popular groundswell instead of billionaire-funded astroturf scapegoating) and the State Policy Network.

The State Policy Network is, by its own admission, like a Heritage Foundation for each of the 50 states.

And Heritage is the lovely bunch of arsonists who collected all the ousted Trumpists who so displeased you between 2021 and 2024, gathered up their ideas for authoritarianism and destroying the government, and called it Project 2025, which we can now watch unfold in real time thanks to returned-President Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk, who are violating the Constitution in literal and foundational ways too numerous to count.

Anyhow, all of the above folks push vouchers, which they disingenuously call "school choice" and try to look for any way they can suck taxpayer dollars away from public education and put it in the hands of minimally regulated, minimally credentialed, minimally overseen, exclusionary private venues.

Then there's you:

My motivation is the ability to come alongside our school kids and their families and to support them and equip them.

But not trans kids.

You voted for HB 63—The “Help Not Harm Act” (I want to vomit to death)—on Jan 31, and then voted to override the governor’s veto of it on Feb. 18:

the help not harm act; prohibiting healthcare providers from treating a child whose gender identity is inconsistent with the child's sex; authorizing a civil cause of action against healthcare providers for providing such treatments; restricting use of state funds to promote gender transitioning; prohibiting professional liability insurance from covering damages for healthcare providers that provide gender transition treatment to children; requiring professional discipline against a healthcare provider who performs such treatments; adding violation of the act to the definition of unprofessional conduct for physicians

As the Trans Lawrence Coalition noted,

Nearly all of those who testified in favor of the bills [that became the “Help Not Harm Act”] were not from Kansas. A large number of them are directly tied to well-established anti-trans organizations, including an appearance from a director at the Heritage Foundation.
Most of the opposition testimony was from cis people. We saw all kinds of professionals show up — doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, and therapists. There were also two mothers of trans children: one whose son is still on hormones, and one whose son unfortunately died by suicide before he was able to start any kind of medical transition….
Common themes: Much of the pro-testimony revolved heavily around ableist ideas. More specifically, they were fixated on the idea of autistic girls “being transed,” as if autistic people cannot have autonomy over their bodies and identities. Relatedly, they referred to HRT as “drugs” repeatedly and framed usage of HRT as if it was a substance use disorder. At one point, the director from the Heritage Foundation referred to gender-affirming surgery as “amputations.” We should question why the anti-trans side is fixated on using various disabilities to convey a sense of disgust and moral revulsion to the bodies of trans people.

As James Baldwin wrote in 1966,

“I can’t believe what you say,” the song goes, “because I see what you do.”

I see you legislating in good standing as a member of the Republican party, which for a decade has been headed by Donald Trump, who you briefly opposed, then voted for, despite his insurrection literally terrorizing a “longtime, dear friend” of yours trapped on the Hill on Jan. 6, “worried about his safety, the safety of his family, and the safety of his fellow colleagues.” After writing,

If history is any indication of future behavior, there is no doubt that Trump would employ falsehoods, slander opponents, and continue to undermine the electoral process for the sake of protecting his ego

…you helped re-elect Trump with your work in last year’s session demonizing DEI, which is now coming back to demonize the disabled, whom you say you support and care about. Kinda like your longtime, dear friend, maybe? Y’all still on speaking terms?

I see you claiming to be so disappointed that more funding wasn’t allocated for special education, but you offered no amendment, knowing such was doomed, but doomed by which party, and why? Could it be because your party is chock full of people working to defund and defang the state, dismantle public education entirely and send the money it receives to private and religious schools that have little to no requirement to serve those with special needs, trading public tolerance for privatized tyranny?

I see you not speaking out against your own party’s attorney general as he leverages your and your party’s anti-trans animus to throw out the laws that ensure accommodations and equity and non-discrimination for all disabled people in America.

I see your track record of having worked for and under privatizers and religious zealots (Huelskamp, Hawkins, Masterson) who deceive and mislead.

I see your now 22 years of largely unbroken work in politics paired with your claim that “I don’t understand all the politics that go on here at the Capitol.”

I see your toothless posturing as a conservative who cares and is “disappointed” as just a form of Nicewashing, pretending to give a damn about politically inoffensive, sympathetic groups when the spotlight is on you, but otherwise doing nothing to help them and openly pursuing other policies that actively harm them and others because you’re either too cowardly to take a “Stand” against your fellow partisans3 or too driven by parochial disgust and supremacist attitudes to view certain folks as just as human and endowed with dignity and agency as you are.

The more I pay attention to you, Steve, the more I zero in on two possibilities:

You are either very nice4 and very (probably willingly) clueless as to how you are being duped and used by people who are just running game on you, or
You are well aware of what you’re doing and enabling and making possible, and while not a mastermind, you’re smart enough to talk out of both sides of your mouth, manage your image, and count on people not to realize that you’re not a good guy once your surface is scratched.

Because both possibilities are technically still open, I have to try to keep writing you these letters, but as you’ll note from the tone, I’m leaning more and more toward option #2.

The good news is that if I ever fully conclude you’re a worthless humanity-abdicating piece of trash, I’ll stop writing to you. (And just write about you.)

The bad news is that there will be at least one human being in the world who holds you in utter, absolute, spit-on-you-with-disgust contempt.

Ponder how bad your behavior has to be to spawn such a response, Steve. I may only be a janitor. You may be able to buy and sell me, if not now, then probably one day. You’ll probably always have more power than I will, including power over me. But if you keep this stuff up, there will be at least one, lowly, toothless, toilet-scrubbing, washed-up nothing who will forever regard you as someone who sold his soul, and there’s nothing lower than that.

Sincerely,

James

P.S. The relevant Howe-Did-We-Get-Here? Files