If you can't dazzle them with brilliance...

Baffle them with bullshit.

Like a lot of people, I paid attention to yesterday’s Kansas abortion referendum, the confusing-as-hell “Value Them Both” amendment, the name of which completely muddied the waters.

The amendment failed, and not just a little. Here’s a graphic from the Kansas City Star (right after AP called it):

This vote was interesting to me on several personal levels. I sent Postcards to Voters about it, plus I lived in Kansas for a few years in the ‘80s, back when it was an interestingly progressive state, before the one-note anti-abortion freaks took over.

Here. See if you can make sense of the wording:

So if I vote yes, I take away abortion? And how precisely does that value pregnant people? I’m confused.

I imagine voters were confused, as well. A lot of money went into this referendum (including nearly $2.5 from the Roman Catholic Church.) There was heavy turnout for the country’s first ballot measure on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and removed from pregnant people agency over their own damn bodies, and as such, the election had everything: Misinformation! Suspended social media accounts! PACs playing dirty!

Nevertheless, the good people of Kansas voted to protect abortion rights. Long live Kansas. May this portend future votes where states’ residents continue to do the right thing.