As we edge closer to Nov. 5, I’m reminded of the old Louisville Democrat, a Courier-Journal ancestor.
When the legislature rejected disunion in 1861, the Democrat lauded Unionist lawmakers for acting “nobly in the present crisis,” thereby thwarting “politicians whose only salvation was in secession.”
Kentucky voters can likewise act nobly in our current crisis. They can turn thumbs down on politicians whose sole salvation is in deceit, divisiveness, and demagoguery.
If the polls are right, Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has caught his challenger, Democrat Andy Beshear. An August Hart poll had Beshear up by nine percent over Bevin (48-39). A Mason-Dixon poll released this month showed them tied at 46 apiece.
It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s the old GOP social issues bait-and-switch.
“In these final weeks of the election, Bevin has tightened up the race with shameless flogging of cultural issues that have very little to do with the economic problems that affect Kentuckians most, from squawking about abortion to preacher parties in the Governor’s Mansion,” said the Lexington Herald-Leader editorial endorsing Beshear. “But like much of Bevin’s tenure, this is ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’”
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Bevin has tightened up the race with shameless flogging of cultural issues that have very little to do with the economic problems that affect Kentuckians most. But like much of Bevin’s tenure, this is ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’” quote=”Bevin has tightened up the race with shameless flogging of cultural issues that have very little to do with the economic problems that affect Kentuckians most. But like much of Bevin’s tenure, this is ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’”]
The whole Republican ticket is infected with Bevinism. It’s a nasty bug whose symptoms are chronic fear-mongering, dissembling, demonizing Democrats, unions and school teachers, and pandering to prejudice. Trumpism is an even more virulent strain.
From Bevin on down the ballot, Team Red wants everybody to know that unlike those “socialist” Democrats, they love God, guns, and Donald Trump, and hate abortion. (Well-heeled Republicans menfolk know that if their daughters or paramours unintentionally end up in a family way, planes fly pretty regularly to Canada for safe and legal abortions, and the faithful are none the wiser.)
Of course, Trump loves Team Red back. The president is due at Rupp Arena in Lexington on Nov. 4 to boost Bevin and, presumably, the rest of the GOP slate.
Meanwhile, we’re being carpet-bombed with Team Red TV ads. Some are from the candidates, others from pro-Republican groups.
The Herald-Leader is probably right. If Bevin has pulled even with Beshear, he most likely did so by trotting out the social issues, which the Republicans have been using to sucker working stiffs for years. The Kentucky version of the national GOP scam has a Mitch McConnell trademark.
Of course, the Republican commercials flat lie. They’re based on the Big Lie theory of politics. (Google where the theory came from.)
A lot of the ads feature immigrant-bashing (those who come from south of the border, not from Norway). The ads are cynically crafted for a state that’s more than 87 percent white, mostly rural and Bible Belt conservative, except for “liberal Louisville” and somewhat less left-leaning Lexington.
While Bevin is seeking a second term, GOP attorney general hopeful Daniel Cameron is making his first run for public office. But he’s proved to be a quick study in dog-whistle politicking.
Cameron, who lawyered for Sen. Mitch McConnell in Washington, looks like an old pro at pandering. McConnell must be proud of his young protégée.
Like Bevin’s ads, Cameron’s commercials are based on falsehoods and fear-mongering.
Bruce Maples, who runs Forward Kentucky, says Cameron is taking a page from his mentor’s playbook. No doubt he is. But Cameron also sounds to me like he’s got that old Know-Nothing spirit.
The Know-Nothings were a Protestant nativist party that cut a big swath in Bluegrass State politics before the Civil War. The Know-Nothings ranted that Catholic immigrants — especially German and Irish — were ruining the country.
The party crashed after armed Protestant mobs rampaged through immigrant neighborhoods in Louisville on election day in 1855. They drove naturalized citizens away from the polls. They beat and murdered immigrants, and burned their homes and businesses to boot.
The object of Cameron’s disaffection is Democrat Greg Stumbo. Attorney general from 2004 to 2008, Stumbo wants his old job back.
Maples didn’t pull punches in describing a Cameron attack ad against Stumbo. He tagged it “vicious, intimidating, full of half-truths and outright lies…it talks about Greg Stumbo giving ‘illegals’ driver’s licenses, and Democrats wanting to fill Kentucky with ‘Mexican meth.’”
Added Maples: “It’s ugly, it’s demeaning, and you need a shower after watching it.” If you do ferret it out, you will need an extra big bottle of shower gel.
Even so, it looks like Cameron’s commercials, like Bevin’s, might be working. “I have a very narrow lead, only a few points, over my opponent, and anything could happen on Election Day,” Stumbo warns in a new fund-raising email.
At least Cameron is consistent. He dove deep into Trump-style Latinx immigrant-baiting in his Fancy Farm speech. The Republican white folks ate it up. (Cameron never misses a chance to remind voters that he’s proud of Trump’s endorsement – McConnell’s, too.)
Cameron said Stumbo tried “to give illegals driver’s licenses here in the commonwealth of Kentucky” and supports “open borders and sanctuary policies.” Both claims are lies.
Usually, McConnell hastily decamps the Fancy Farm stage after he speaks. But he stuck around to hear Cameron slime Stumbo.
“It is truly shameful that the first African American candidate for statewide office in Kentucky would resort to such blatant racist attacks against our immigrant communities in order to score a few cheap political points,” Stumbo spokesperson Meredith Scalos replied to Cameron’s ad blitz.
It is shameful, and then some.
But herein lies the rub for Team Blue: You can’t shame Team Red. No dissembling, no defamation, no slander, no smear is a bridge too far for Bevin and the Bevinites (and Trump and the Trumpians).
But there’s a sure-fire cure for Bevinism-Trumpism, too. It’s called the vote.
Complaining about it won’t work. Shaming won’t work. Letters to the editor won’t work. The cure for the Bevinism-Trumpism infection we are facing is to go vote, and to get everyone you know to go vote as well.
If we can banish the Bevinism bug at the polls on Nov. 5, the prognosis for a national recovery from Trumpism on Nov. 3, 2020, will seem a whole lot better.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Our state is infected with Bevinism (a local version of Trumpism). Symptoms include lying, pandering, and fear-mongering. But there’s a cure! It’s called THE VOTE. Show up on November 5th to begin treatment to purge our state of Bevinism.” quote=”Our state is infected with Bevinism (a local version of Trumpism). Symptoms include lying, pandering, and fear-mongering. But there’s a cure! It’s called THE VOTE. Show up on November 5th to begin treatment to purge our state of Bevinism.”]
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