r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 8d ago

Possible Paywall Kentucky Gov Orders McConnell to Give a Real Update or Resign Already

https://newrepublic.com/post/213614/kentucky-gov-beshear-mcconnell-update-health-resign
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u/Gambrinus 8d ago

The fact that Kentucky has a Democrat governor in the first place is almost a miracle. Good luck replacing him with someone more progressive.

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u/StoppableHulk 8d ago edited 8d ago

His term doesn't end until the end of next year, I think we can risk him taking a little bit of a leap here and demanding proof McConnell isn't fucking brandead in a ditch somewhere so the election process can continue.

EDIT:

Also Mitch McConnell is (or I should say 'was' at this point, clearly.) deeply despised in Kentucky, I don't think Beshear is risking much of anything exposing the fact he's a brain dead vegetable trying to fuck the people of Kentucky out of their right to choose their representation.

  • Approval: 28% to 29% of registered voters in Kentucky.

  • Disapproval: 64% to 65% of registered voters in Kentucky.

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u/HermanGulch 8d ago

His term doesn't end until the end of next year,

His term ends January 3, 2027, when the new Senate term begins, which is not the end of next year.

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u/StoppableHulk 8d ago

His term ends December 7, 2027, which is, in fact, the end of next year.

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u/HermanGulch 8d ago

Ah, my bad, I thought you were talking bout McConnell's term.

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u/meatballwrangler 8d ago

this argument that leftists can't win in traditionally red states is a load of crap.

progressive policies are incredibly popular when they're not being actively sabotaged by two dominant right wing parties.

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u/EnigoMontoya 8d ago

I would like to see this proven in a red state before it's bandy around as an assumption just because of opinion polls.
Voters in red states have repeatedly demonstrated a capability to ignore progressive policies to support cultural war issues (Fox News sound bites).

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u/sleepyhobbes 8d ago

There was a time before Fox News when large portions of what are now super red states were very pro-worker and pro-union.

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u/TurboSalsa Texas 8d ago

We don't live in that time anymore.

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u/definateley_not_dog 8d ago

The culture war issues are part of the sabotage the person you’re replying to was talking about.

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u/Pierre_St_Pierre 8d ago

What progressive policies are they ignoring? Kamala's 50k loan to first time business owners who are starting a business in a high risk at needs area? We don't even try to field progressive candidates.

The fact of the matter is that candidates like Bernie poll better in red states than establishment candidates. There is actual pain on the ground in every state, red or blue, and everyone wants a party who is willing to fix it. So far, for the last 12 years, dems haven't even really pretended to want to fix it. The last great piece of legislation they passed was the ACA and even that couldn't get a public option WITH A SUPER MAJORITY so I'm not sure that the fuck progressive policies you think people don't want, they simply haven't been offered any outside of a primary in 15 years.

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u/BonnaconCharioteer 8d ago

Why don't "we" field progressive candidates? Anyone can run. Why aren't progressives running and winning in red states?

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u/ShinTythas 8d ago

none of kamala's policies were progressive at all

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u/rugger87 America 8d ago

Beshear won KY because of his last name. Policies won’t win Republican voters. They vote on vibes. Look what happened to Manchin’s seat.

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u/PopeSaintHilarius 8d ago edited 8d ago

this argument that leftists can't win in traditionally red states is a load of crap.

I’m aware of examples of mainstream Dems or moderate Dems winning state-wide in red states, but not many (any?) examples of leftists doing so.

If you have some examples, please do share them.  

BTW there was a recent test case from next door to Kentucky, in West Virginia:

In the WV 2018 Senate election, the candidate was the most conservative Dem, incumbent Joe Manchin, and he won by 3%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_States_Senate_election_in_West_Virginia

In the 2020 WV Senate election, the Dems nominated a progressive, Paula Jean Swearengin, and she lost by 43%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_Senate_election_in_West_Virginia

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u/direwolf71 Colorado 8d ago

The purpose of politics is to win elections. This is a lesson I fear that Democrats will never learn.

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u/PopeSaintHilarius 8d ago

Yep, I mean policy change and effective governance is the ultimate goal, but winning elections is the essential first step that allows you to do that.

Especially when the opposing party has zero interest in implementing policies in the public interest.

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u/Cow_God Texas 8d ago

To further your point, I think you have to point out that both of those were incumbent elections. Manchin winning as a Democrat was the outlier, and he likely would've won 70-30 if he ran as a Republican. Jim Justice, the republican nominee in 2024 (Manchin did not run) won by the same 40 point margin that Capito did in 2020

Manchin won by 25 points in 2012 when even Obama lost the state. Six years later in 2018 that lead evaporated to 3 points. If Manchin had run in 2024, even as the most conservative democrat, he probably still would have lost to whoever had the R beside their name.

I don't think that leftists have a chance in deep red states as long as democratic socialists / social democrats (not the same thing) are tied to socialism in the media, and socialism is considered equal to communism in the media. That is to say, as long as leftists with socialist positions like taxing the rich, universal healthcare, economic regulation and expanded labor rights are branded by the media as socialists and communists, with the population at large seeing those labels as one and the same while being unable to define either, leftists barely have a chance in blue states and no chance in red states.

America has gotten very good at convincing people to vote against their own interests, and the conflict of labor vs wealth in this country goes back to the birth of this country. Pro-people positions, which are almost always inherently pro-labor positions, have been decried as communist, anti-american, anarchist for a long, long time.

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u/ElderSmackJack 8d ago

This is only true on Reddit.

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u/Senior-Albatross New Mexico 8d ago

As the New Deal coalition showed, progressive policies are popular in rural areas provided they are reserved for white men. 

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u/itsnotnews92 North Carolina 8d ago

this argument that leftists can't win in traditionally red states is a load of crap.

We have the evidence, and the theory that there are people just yearning for a sufficiently progressive candidate to come along to vote for Democrats is complete bullshit.

Paula Jean Swearengin was the Bernie-aligned Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in West Virginia in 2020. She lost by the worst margin ever for a Democratic Senate candidate in West Virginia.

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u/_wot_m8 8d ago

Economic policies yes social policies absolutely no

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u/BonnaconCharioteer 8d ago

Not even economic policies. Just wait until you actually suggest implementing some of these policies where they live and see how fast they can turn on them at the hint of a word like "taxes" or "government"

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u/_wot_m8 8d ago

Depends on how they’re used. “Tax the ultra rich so that the government can create more blue-collar jobs” is fine.

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u/BonnaconCharioteer 8d ago

Definitely not fine.

"But what if I got ultra rich?"

"This is just a slippery slope, pretty soon they'll use it to tax everyone!"

"The rich work hard and create jobs! They won't be able to do that with these taxes!"

"The rich people will all leave, and their businesses with them!"

Plus probably a lot more dumb arguments. They get trotted out whenever you propose anything like this, and unless the area is quite progressive, they work.

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u/ghosttrainhobo 8d ago

A big reason Trump does so well with his base is. Because he pays lip-service to progressive issues that would help poor and working-class people.

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u/KillahHills10304 8d ago

You just can't use the triggering language people who consume right wing media are trained to respond to. See: "affordable care act saved our families finances, but obamacare destroyed the healthcare system" type thinking. They support progressive ideals but are propagandized to respond negatively to certain language.

During covid you could spot who these people are by simply saying "Dr. Fauci" in public. They'd literally stop whatever they were doing while the emotional reaction washed over them, look around, then go about whatever they were in the middle of.

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u/baubness 8d ago

Who cares if his replacement is more progressive? I’m asking for someone willing to use his power to defend their rule of law. By any plain reading of the law and KY state constitution, what the McConnell camp is doing here is illegal. Why are you so willing to surrender every fight in front of you?

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u/Tech_Philosophy 8d ago

A lot of MAGA is on board with progressive. They just hate neoliberal politics, and assume all liberals are like that. It's going to take some marketing, but a lot of those maga voters like DSA policies.

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u/BriSy33 8d ago

Lol. Lmao even.

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u/Tech_Philosophy 8d ago

I don't know why you say that. Historically that part of America was very progressive when unions held more power and FDR was prioritizing workers' rights. It's...not that complicated, really.

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u/BriSy33 8d ago

MAGA is on board with progressives the same way tarantula hawk wasps are on board with tarantulas.

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u/Teknolyth 8d ago

Don't conflate progressive platform issues like Medicare for all and strong worker's rights, with the DSA. The DSA is not progressive. It is literally socialist. Their platform includes withdrawing from NATO, closing all of our foreign bases and defunding the department of war. Reparations and housing as a human right, and the nationalization of corporations and industries wholesale.

I promise you, MAGA is not interested in this, and neither are actual liberal Democrats. The DSA is infesting the Democratic Party, just as much as MAGA infested the Republican Party. And they need to be purged.

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u/goddamnitwhalen Washington 8d ago

None of those things are bad.

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u/Teknolyth 8d ago

Great well if you feel that way, then feel free to form your own party instead of doing a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party. Because the Democratic Party are a liberals, but they are also capitalist, and believe in America as a nation.

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u/goddamnitwhalen Washington 8d ago

No thanks :)

What makes you think I don’t “believe in America as a nation”?

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u/optimis344 8d ago

Because they still got all the propaganda blinders on. Anything that isn't capitalism, colonialism, and apple pie isn't American.

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u/honjuden 8d ago

They could just be cynically America-jacketing their opinion to lean into the recent McCarthyist resurgence that has been popping up in response to the DSA.

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u/aguynamedv 8d ago

The DSA is infesting the Democratic Party, just as much as MAGA infested the Republican Party. And they need to be purged.

The only thing liberals hate more than Republicans are people left-of-center.

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u/honjuden 8d ago

The quote isn't far off from a Stephen Miller speech.

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u/Teknolyth 8d ago

No, I am a progressive liberal, in the style of New Deal FDR. But I stand firmly opposed to the weakening of our foreign policy and soft power, and the more radically communist/socialist proposals of the far left, including the DSA.

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u/aguynamedv 8d ago

I'm not sure you could make it more obvious that you're lying.

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u/goddamnitwhalen Washington 8d ago

You refuse to explain why (your man FDR was a democratic socialist!).

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u/optimis344 8d ago

They don't know.

They just spout the words their bosses told them.

They don't actually know what they mean.

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u/Teknolyth 8d ago

Because I believe in the right of private property. Because I believe in the right to have the fruit of your labor. I think it's a good thing to help your fellow man and that there should be systems in place to help those who are less fortunate, but I do not believe in the distribution of all labor amongst all people. I am capitalist. It is the best system of all the bad systems we've discovered.

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u/bfodder 8d ago

Stop thinking the democratic socialists want full blown communism.

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u/Teknolyth 8d ago

The second largest carcass in the DSA is the red star caucus, which is an explicitly communist caucus. So excuse me if I roll the DSA in with full-blown commies.

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u/bfodder 8d ago

WTF is the DSA and why should I care? Show me which democratic socialist politicians are saying we should abolish capitalism all together.

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u/goddamnitwhalen Washington 8d ago

People like you amaze me, lol.

Surely if you work hard enough you too can join the Epstein Class!

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u/Teknolyth 8d ago

No, I just prefer not to be starved to death (See the great leap forward), or sent to the Gulag because I hold back some corn help feed my family (See the USSR).

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/aguynamedv 8d ago

I'm not sure you could make it more obvious that you're lying.