With election season bearing down on us like an overzealous predator animal, I’d like to take a quick moment to focus on responsibility.

The chattering class, of which I’m a longtime member, likes to chatter about the responsibility of both politicians and the news media. Lawmakers and journalists should tell us the truth, but they owe us more than mere facts. They should, commenters emphasize, dedicate themselves to principles of representative democracy and civic virtue.

The ultimate responsibility, though, rests on the shoulders of a far larger group. I’m talking about voters. That’s right, the millions of men and women, young and old, Black and white and every color in between, who cast their ballots in primary and general elections. You all have a job to do as well.

A fair number of you have been falling short.

I know you all assume I’m writing about a certain New York real estate developer-turned-politician. He shadows a lot of these conversations. But let’s set him and his strongman act aside. Here in Kansas, voters have enabled a system that stymies exactly the policies that they tell pollsters they want.

They want an expanded Medicaid program. They want recreational marijuana — not even medical marijuana — legalized. They want schools fully funded and a sensible tax structure. Their responses remain consistent over the years, at least according to Fort Hays State University’s Kansas Speaks Poll. Yet these same voters have continued to elect supermajorities of hardcore conservative Republicans to the House and Senate who stand squarely against all of these proposals.

Voters have chosen this course.

What’s the matter?

None of this should come as a surprise. We’ve been doing this in Kansas for decades, and a particularly well-known book lays it all out. Yes, Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” captured hearts and minds and attention two decades ago. Yet the elections keep coming, and the choices keep being made.

Washburn University political science professor Bob Beatty pointed to Frank’s work in trying to explain why voters choose politicians who pursue policies contrary to their interests.

“A political party can be effective in making certain issues that might not affect a lot of people be prioritized over issues that these people might support and also may influence them directly,” Beatty wrote me in an email.

In other words, GOP candidates weaponize issues such as immigration, election security, crime and “critical race theory” — all non-factors in Kansas — to advance other goals.

But perhaps there’s a simpler explanation, according to the professor.

“Party identification is the greatest indicator of vote choice, still, in American elections, according to all data,” Beatty wrote. “Primaries in Kansas feature very low turnout, especially for legislative races, and the people who do turn out tend to be more conservative (sometimes much more conservative) than the general population. So, if a conservative Republican wins a primary, even if they’ve got a more moderate district overall, then party ID will kick in.”

Analysis from KFF shows that only 59% of eligible voters in Kansas actually cast ballots in the 2022 elections. That means 41% of those older than 18 who could potentially cast a ballot chose not to do so when Election Day rolled around.

Crunching data from the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office and the Census Bureau shows that a substantial number of Kansans don’t even register. Roughly 2.25 million people in the state were above the age of 18 as of July 1, 2023. Only 1.95 million had registered to vote. That works out to about 300,000 going unregistered.

You can’t have a say if you don’t raise your voice.

Our priorities

Over the weekend, several friends and I played a gigantic strategic board game called Twilight Imperium.

In the game, you play one of several alien races battling for power and influence in the galaxy. Playing requires not only understanding two books’ worth of rules, but navigating plastic spaceships across a map assembled from hexagonal tiles. As gameplay progresses, you also draw dozens of cards with potential actions and ways to score points, both publicly and secretly.

Playing a full game of Twilight Imperium can take seven to eight hours, although that’s a best-case scenario if all players know the game well and can leap into action. Our particular game took 10 hours, spread across a Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

Believe me, this does have to do with voting. Please bear with me.

Intensely complicated strategy board games may not be your idea of a good time. But many people become intensely involved in various hobbies. Folks of all ages play complex and absorbing video games, which transport them to other worlds while including dense screens full of statistics. A different group of enthusiasts play fantasy sports, in which building and adjusting your own team throughout a season can involve detailed research and even spreadsheets.

We don’t play Twilight Imperium or video games or fantasy football because these pursuits earn us a salary. We enjoy them. We blow off steam and spend time with friends. Yet you cannot ignore that doing so involves learning and manipulating reams of intricate data that have nothing to do with our day-to-day lives.

So why can’t we take a fraction of that absorption and critical thought and put it toward our shared civic conversation?

Why don’t voters step up to participating in their state and nation’s government with the same enthusiasm as they do toward drafting their fantasy team?

Once upon a time, perhaps when “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” came out, a certain ignorance of the internet or 24/7 news cycle could be excused. The world had changed quickly. Yet we’ve now lived more than three decades with the web, two decades with social media and 17 years with the iPhone. If you don’t understand the technology by now, that’s on you.

Multiple resources online separate fact from fiction. Reporters and news sources across the country, including Kansas Reflector, tackle this work every day. If you want to separate legitimate news from misinformation and disinformation, you can.

Each one of us has a responsibility to our state, country and shared future. Each one of us — including voters — should take that seriously.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – A Kansas man was arrested after a brief stand-off with the Fairbanks Criminal Suppression Unit in the Bentley Mall parking lot on May 7.

39 year-old Levi Hart of Montgomery County, Kansas was wanted for multiple felony drug manufacturing and trafficking charges, as well as failure to appear in court, when he left his home state.

“The information that was passed on to us was that he had no intentions of going back to jail, and that he was possibly armed,” said Alaska State Trooper Trevor Norris, a member of the Criminal Suppression Unit.

“In kind of a stroke of luck for us, by the time we got the information on what he was likely wearing and driving he happened to show up where a surveillance unit was parked in about an hour,” Norris explained.

Multiple law enforcement units were able to enter the area without alerting the suspect. Hart turned out to be unarmed, and surrendered after a short stand-off.

“He told us at the time that he was debating on whether to flee or to end the confrontation some other way,” Norris said. “But at the end of the day he said that he didn’t think Alaska would arrest on outstanding warrants from out of state. And I’m here to tell you that a great way to meet the Criminal Suppression Unit is to come up to Fairbanks with extraditable warrants. Alaska will extradite fugitives from justice.”

Hart was remanded to the Fairbanks Correctional Center to await extradition to Kansas.

Copyright 2024 KTVF. All rights reserved.

People Magazine has recognized The Weather Room in downtown Topeka’s Cyrus Hotel as the most beautiful restaurant in Kansas and one of the 50 most beautiful in the U.S., Downtown Topeka, Inc., announced Tuesday.

People, along with the editors of Open Table, crowned one restaurant in each state as part of the 2024 Beautiful issue, DTI said in a news release.

“These super-stylish stunners deliver unforgettable dining experiences,” said People, an American weekly magazine published since 1974 that focuses on human interest and celebrity news and has 96 million weekly readers.

“I am thrilled to see The Weather Room receive this national recognition by such a popular magazine,” said Ashley Gilfillan, DTI’s president.

The Weather Room has become an important destination on S. Kansas Avenue, she said while expressing excitement that “more may discover what it has to offer as a result of this recognition.”

What is The Weather Room?

A modern steakhouse serving creative Midwestern cuisine and American dishes inside the Cyrus Hotel at 920 S. Kansas Ave, The Weather Room Restaurant & Bar offers upscale, casual dining in the heart of Topeka.

Designed by its owner, Topeka-based AIM Strategies as a place where people can experience both progress and nostalgia, The Weather Room introduced to downtown Topeka an American grill that combines classic and modern flair, DTI said.

The Weather Room evokes the state’s pastoral landscape with emerald green banquettes and golden-hued curtains, it added.

Seth Wagoner, CEO of AIM Strategies, expressed excitement about the recognition.

“Our aim for the Weather Room was to provide an excellent dining experience to both our city guests and locals,” he said. “It is exciting to have People magazine recognize the work and design that went into the Weather Room.”

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.