The View From Kentucky: Beshear Happy Hour

Something strange is happening in Kentucky. A centrist Democratic governor is attempting to wield actual power. What’s even stranger: It’s working.

The 42-year-old son of former Gov. Steve Beshear, he won a contested Democratic primary against a more progressive opponent, and then went on to face the extraordinarily unpopular Matt Bevin in the general election in the fall. The Libertarian Party, which Bevin had tussled with, decided to field a candidate simply to undermine him. The libertarian pulled 28,000, enough to swing the election; Beshear beat Bevin by just 5,000 votes.

Republicans in the state legislature immediately began calling the result illegitimate, with Republican Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers saying it was “appropriate” of Bevin not to concede and that the GOP-controlled legislature might end up choosing the victor. He specifically cited the libertarian vote, claiming the results weren’t a genuine reflection of support for the Republican incumbent. It felt like a dry run of the 2020 presidential election, which skeptics have warned Donald Trump may not concede even if he loses.

But instead of the quivering response the public has come to expect from Democrats — a threat of a lawsuit, complaints about norms to the media — Beshear plowed forward, talking and acting like the rightful winner of the election. He began naming cabinet members and setting up his government, and in the face of his show of force, the media recognized him as the winner of the election and the GOP crumpled.

Beshear was sworn in as governor on December 10, 2019, and immediately began wielding power. That day, he signed an order restoring voting rights to more than 100,000 felons. On December 16, he killed Bevin’s Medicaid overhaul, which had been designed to throw people off the rolls. Another key issue in the election had been anger from teachers at Bevin over a slew of assaults, chief among them his attempt to undercut their pensions. Bevin had been concealing a 65-page official analysis of that plan showing its cost to public workers and its ineffectiveness in the long term. Beshear spiked the plan, and, on December 20, publicly released the assessment, in all its gory details.

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Beshear Happy Hour

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Beshear is certainly a breath of fresh air after Bevin. We'll see just how far he gets with the legislature in the future. Right now he's racking up points with his handling of the virus. He may face a big challenge dealing with churches that are refusing to cancel services.

Mu only issue so far is that he has used at least one if not more of his messages to promote god belief. Particularly on March 21 when he said "Our Creator, no matter what your religion, cares for us and is guiding us." I wrote him a letter asking him to refrain from the religion endorsing since he was elected to be the chief administrator of a secular institution and not pastor in chief. I also reminded him that if he says he values 'solidarity' on the part of all Kentuckans, he needs to remember that at least a quarter of them are non-believers. Hope he takes this to heart because it's wrong to use government to promote religious belief.

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

phillybluesfan's picture

@Fishtroller 02 At this phase of my life, the concept of higher power as practiced within 12 step groups is easy to swallow. live in Louisville. Where are you?

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

@phillybluesfan

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"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Roy Blakeley's picture

Once upon a time Democrats played political hard ball and stood for something. In recent years they have become so bad at politics that one has to wonder if they want to win, and they don't stand for a whole lot. (I could give about 30 pages of examples of incompetence/self destruction, but I would only raise my blood pressure unnecessarily.) They reserve hard ball for Democrats who stray away from the neoliberal center. Who knows how things will turn out for Beshear and Kentucky in the long run, but it sounds like Beshear is doing some good things and IMHO neoliberal politics is less damaging at the state level than at the national level.

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phillybluesfan's picture

@Roy Blakeley I did not vote for him in the primary. But have been pleasantly surprised. Democrats in Kentucky suffer from the play it safe mentality. Explains why we continue to elect the likes of Rand and Mitch. The national committee back McGrath against Mitch. She will lose. There is a progressive in the race. But the establishment does their best to undercut him. The current party is a shell of its former self, thanks to WJC, and frustrates me to no end.

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets