1. The Bellwether of American Decline

0.      Omair Ahmad, “A Cassandra in Trumpland: Sarah Kendzior’s Pithy Comment on Privilege,” The Wire, December 9, 2016, https://thewire.in/84913/sarah-kendzior-cassandra-in-trumpland-privilege/?fromNewsdog=1.

0.      https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/slogan.asp.

0.      Rachel Lippmann, “Missouri Lawmakers Look to Undo Voter-Approved Initiatives,” St. Louis Public Radio, April 22, 2019, https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/missouri-lawmakers-look-undo-voter-approved-initiatives.

0.      T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men (Redlands, CA: IC Press, 1988).

0.      Jim Gallagher, “A Survivor Describes the Great Quake of 1811,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 1, 2015, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/a-survivor-describes-the-great-quake-of/article_83ac1f82-7cd2-5d20-b570-74efc8355aee.html.

0.      Helen Wilbers, “New Madrid Threat Leaves Generals Quaking,” Fulton Sun, November 18, 2018, http://www.fultonsun.com/news/local/story/2018/nov/18/new-madrid-threat-leaves-generals-quaking/752890/.

0.      Phillip Longman, “Why the Economic Fates of America’s Cities Diverged,” The Atlantic, November 28, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/11/cities-economic-fates-diverge/417372/.

0.      Elaine X. Grant, “TWA—Death of a Legend,” St. Louis magazine, June 28, 2006, https://www.stlmag.com/TWA-Death-Of-A-Legend/.

0.      Reuters, “Icahn: Mnuchin and Ross ‘Would Be Great Choices’ for Trump,” November 15, 2016, https://www.businessinsider.com/r-update-1-icahn-mnuchin-and-ross-would-be-great-choices-for-trump-2016-11.

0.    Alan Greenblatt, “Rex Sinquefield: The Tyrannosaurus Rex of State Politics,” Governing.com, June 2015, https://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-rex-sinquefield-missouri.html.

0.    Dan Schnurbusch, “The Wild Mid-West: Missouri Ethics and Campaign Finance Under a Narrowed Corruption Regime,” Missouri Law Review 80, no. 4 (2015), https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=4175&context=mlr.

0.    David A. Lieb, “Missouri Campaign Limits Repealed,” Missourian, July 22, 2008, https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/state_news/missouri-campaign-contribution-limits-repealed/article_0778898c-9e58-5e00-a6e9-dbcfcdeabd2c.html.

0.    Open Secrets, “Political Nonprofits (Dark Money),” Last updated August 14, 2019, https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/nonprof_summ.php.

0.    Bruce Wilson, “Roy Blunt (R-MO) Tells Racism-Tinged Monkey Joke at DC Conference,” Huffington Post, November 21, 2009, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roy-blunt-r-mo-tells-raci_b_292260.

0.    Monica Davey and Jeff Zeleny, “Obama Returns to Missouri, Site of Slim 2008 Loss,” New York Times, July 6, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/us/politics/07missouri.html.

0.    Jeff Nesbit, “The Secret Origins of the Tea Party,” Time, 2016, https://time.com/secret-origins-of-the-tea-party/.

0.    Andrew Fowler, “NAACP Calls Out Tea Party for Racism,” St. Louis American, July 15, 2010, http://www.stlamerican.com/news/local_news/naacp-calls-out-tea-party-for-racism/article_ba2aa555-432f-5424-bea4-d231be68709b.html.

0.    https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_elections,_2016#cite_note-4.

0.    Greenblatt, “Rex Sinquefield.”

0.    Nicholas Lemann, “Claire McCaskill’s Toughest Fight,” New Yorker, October 22, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/29/claire-mccaskills-toughest-fight; Andy Kroll, “Dark Money’s Top Target: Claire McCaskill,” Mother Jones, September/October 2012, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/08/claire-mccaskill-missouri-karl-rove/.

0.    Chris Gentilviso, “Todd Akin on Abortion: ‘Legitimate Rape’ Victims Have ‘Ways to Try to Shut That Whole Thing Down,’” Huffington Post, August 19, 2012, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/todd-akin-abortion-legitimate-rape_n_1807381.

0.    John Eligon, “McCaskill Ad Features Victims of Sexual Assault,” New York Times, October 10, 2012, https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/mccaskill-ads-feature-victims-of-sexual-assault/.

0.    “America’s Choice 2012: Election Center,” Missouri Senate race results, CNN.com, December 10, 2012, http://edition.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/MO/senate/.

0.    Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind (New York: Harcourt, Inc., 1971), 180.

0.    Jenna McLaughlin and Pema Levy, “What We Know About the Mysterious Suicide of Missouri Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Schweich,” Mother Jones, February 27, 2015, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/tom-schweich-missouri-suicide/.

0.    Alex Stuckey, “Spence Jackson’s Note: ‘I Can’t Take Being Unemployed Again,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 31, 2015, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/spence-jackson-s-note-i-can-t-take-being-unemployed/article_e623c1eb-343a-568d-9bae-a18d350175f3.html.

0.    Erin Richey, “Missouri Gets D-Grade in 2015 state integrity investigation,” Center for Public Integrity, November 9, 2015, https://publicintegrity.org/state-politics/state-integrity-investigation/missouri-gets-d-grade-in-2015-state-integrity-investigation/.

0.    Ibid.

0.    Associated Press, “Court Says Pro-Greitens’ Group Must Comply with Subpoena,” Fox4kc.com, May 29, 2018, https://fox4kc.com/2018/05/29/court-says-pro-greitens-group-must-comply-with-subpoena/.

0.    Jason Hancock, “House Says Greitens’ Nonprofit Must Comply with Judge’s Order and Turn Over Records,” Kansas City Star, May 31, 2018, https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article212279384.html.

0.    Jo Mannies, “Greitens’ Political Nonprofits Take Center Stage in Missouri; Common for Governors Around US,” St. Louis Public Radio, April 4, 2017, https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/greitens-political-nonprofits-take-center-stage-missouri-common-governors-around-us#stream/0.

0.    Kurt Erickson, “Greitens Campaign Operation Is Sharing Space with Dark Money Group,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 20, 2018, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/greitens-campaign-operation-is-sharing-space-with-dark-money-group/article_61fe730c-80a4-5221-82df-bff1be22794a.html.

0.    The National Interest, “Proposed Missouri Law Would Require Residents 18 to 35 to Own an AR-15 (There’s a Catch),” Yahoo News, May 5, 2019, https://news.yahoo.com/proposed-missouri-law-require-residents-110000807.html.

0.    “New Analysis Finds Gun Violence Takes a $1.9 Billion Toll on Missouri,” Giffords Law Center, January 2019, https://giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Economic-Cost-of-Gun-Violence-in-Missouri-1.pdf.

0.    “Drug Overdose Mortality by State,” CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm.

0.    Joe Millitzer, “Stenger Resigns After Federal ‘Pay-to-Play’ Indictment,” Fox 2 News, April 29, 2019, https://fox2now.com/2019/04/29/st-louis-county-executive-steve-stenger-indicted-in-pay-to-play-scheme/.

0.    “Post-Dispatch Coverage of the West Lake and Bridgeton Landfills,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 7, 2019, https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/post-dispatch-coverage-of-the-west-lake-and-bridgeton-landfills/collection_f524db66-ffa9-54df-a131-b759a94ec3dd.html.

0.    “NAACP Missouri Chapter Issues Travel Warning for People of Color,” NPR, August 6, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/08/06/541929796/naacp-missouri-chapter-issues-travel-warning-for-people-of-color.

0.    “The US State Where Women ‘Could Be Fired’ for Using Contraception,” BBC News, January 31, 2019, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/dad7562f-05b5-428c-8568-b5648674dcda.

0.    Jo Mannies, “Missouri to Give Trump Commission Limited Voter Details, as Illinois Waits for White House Request,” St. Louis Public Radio, January 30, 2017, https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/missouri-give-trump-commission-limited-voter-details-illinois-waits-white-house-request#stream/0.

0.    Jason Hancock and Bryan Lowry, “Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens Resigns, Ending Political Career Once Aimed at Presidency,” Kansas City Star, May 29, 2018, https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article212114314.html.

0.    Chisun Lee, “Dark Money and the Downfall of Eric Greitens,” American Prospect, June 6, 2018, https://prospect.org/article/dark-money-and-downfall-eric-greitens.

0.    Hancock, “House Says Greitens’ Nonprofit Must Comply with Judge’s Order.”

0.    Danny Wicentowski, “‘This Place Is Hell’: An Undercover Trip Inside St. Louis’ Workhouse,” Riverfront Times, August 7, 2017, https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2017/08/07/this-place-is-hell-an-undercover-trip-inside-st-louis-workhouse.

0.    Samuel King, “‘Dark Money’ Groups Spent Millions to Influence Missouri Voters, Report Finds,” St. Louis Public Radio, April 18, 2019, https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/dark-money-groups-spent-millions-influence-missouri-voters-report-finds#stream/0.

0.    Christopher Hooks and Mike Spies, “Documents Show NRA and Republican Candidates Coordinated Ads in Key Senate Races,” Mother Jones, January 11, 2019, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/nra-republicans-campaign-ads-senate-josh-hawley/.

0.    Steve Vockrodt, Lindsay Wise, and Jason Hancock, “Missouri Secretary of State Begins Investigation into Josh Hawley,” Kansas City Star, December 6, 2018, https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article222741630.html.

0.    Mike Spies, “NRA Accused of ‘Elaborate Scheme’ to Evade Campaign Finance Law,” Mother Jones, October 23, 2018, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/10/nra-josh-hawley-campaign-finance-starboard-strategic/; Hooks and Spies, “Documents Show NRA and Republican Candidates Coordinated Ads.”

0.    Mark Follman, “Why the National Rifle Association Is Under Fire Like Never Before,” Mother Jones, March 27, 2019, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/nra-russia-butina-torshin-trump-investigations/.

0.    Sue Blesi, “843-Acre Property Is Don Robinson’s Legacy,” River Hills Traveler, https://www.riverhillstraveler.com/843-acre-property-is-don-robinsons-legacy-to-outdoor-lovers/.