Is Governor Bevin on Santa's list?
Aaron Smith got a peek inside Santa’s workshop to see if Governor Bevin is on the Naughty or Nice list. Turns out, he’s got a list of his own!
Bruce Maples (bruceinlouisville@gmail.com)
The rural-urban divide in Kentucky, analyzed
Two hours after results started trickling in on election night, I tweeted this: Right now my biggest takeaway is that the urban/rural divide in Kentucky is not just alive and well, but getting significantly worse. — Robert Kahne (@rkahne) November 7, 2018 This was a hunch. At that point in
A small Republican block party
It’s always interesting when you get blocked on social media. If a friend blocks you, it’s something of an insult, and probably hurts. But if you’re in journalism / media / the public eye, and someone blocks you because of THAT, then you learn to just take it in
Mitch McConnell calls for "bipartisanship." Wow - really, Senator?
If there were a God, Mitch McConnell would have been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash years ago. After this op-ed at, where else, Fox News, God would sweep up those ashes, reshape and reanimate the remains, just for the pleasure of sending another righteous lightning bolt to smote
Republicans win on the Three Gs – plus an L for "Lying"
Democrat Charlotte Goddard was campaigning door-to-door in a working-class Mayfield neighborhood when she spotted a Ten Commandments sign in the front yard of a modest house. The occupant, a woman, was a registered Democrat, according to VoteBuilder, a computer program Democratic candidates use to identify Democratic voters. “I’d been
Gibraltar crumbles
Kentucky’s “Democratic Gibraltar” has crumbled. Jackson Purchase voters have defeated the region’s last two Democratic lawmakers. When the General Assembly convenes in January, a pair of GOP senators and five representatives will comprise the contingent from westernmost Kentucky. Not that long ago, Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman,
Will we lose our democracy on Tuesday?
In 49 BCE, a single Roman soldier put one armor-clad foot into a shallow stream in northern Italy. This single step by a single soldier led to the fall of Roman democracy. If you know your history, you know that I am referring to the crossing of the Rubicon by
Authoritarianism is on the ballot – will we stop it?
“When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis supposedly warned in the 1930’s when Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler were consolidating their power in Europe. Liberals often apply the evidently apocryphal quote to Donald Trump. But
Mitch dines out
After all the confrontations in various restaurants, Senator Mitch McConnell finally found a place that matches his governing style. Aaron Smith has the details.
A "gut check time" for American democracy
Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin has had it with the narrative that both parties are equally at fault for shoving politics into the gutter. “I think we need to avoid any kind of false equivalence here,” she said on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday. “It’s not
The gravedigger of American democracy
Move over, “Turtle Man.” Make way for “the gravedigger of American democracy,” Mitch McConnell’s brand-new moniker. Historian and author Christopher R. Browning debuted “gravedigger” in the Oct. 25 issue of The New York Review of Books. Who knows if it will top “Turtle Man” as a McConnell handle. But
The sleeper issue that could doom Kentucky Democrats
This year, voters seem mostly focused on pensions, taxes, and education. But a sleeper issue could doom the state Democratic party for at least a decade—maybe longer. “This is the major issue no one is talking about.” – Sen. Morgan McGarvey “It’s the tool the Republicans will use to
From 'The Great Compromiser' to 'The Great Debaser'
I was cooking on this column about Mitch McConnell’s latest descent into demagoguery when I got stuck. The Senate majority leader serially slimes Democrats. So I was having a hard time finding new words to describe his dissembling that the Democrats are the party of mob rule. “Cynical” is
How Andy Beshear could be a hero
As most of you know, Attorney General Andy Beshear is running for governor. Not this year, though; the election for governor isn’t until 2019. And there’s the rub. More than one fellow Dem has called out Beshear for announcing before this year’s election. And even more have
Vote your union job, not the GOP con job
Remember studying Macbeth in high school? We had to memorize the lines that end, “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Gov. Matt Bevin and the Republicans hope, if not expect, that Macbeth’s immortal words will sum up the election. The GOP is counting on Nov. 6 to prove
Resist? Yes. Doxxing? NO.
Some time ago, I attended a political rally focused on the Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally and subsequent events. A person in the crowd was handing out flyers showing a picture of a Kentucky person who was supposedly at the rally. Included on the flyer was the person’s home address, work
