“Red in the morning, sailors take warning ... ”
“You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky,
but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”
The storm is coming.
And no, not the recent winter storm.
The storm that is Trump, Trumpism, and today’s Republican Party.
Yesterday, the Congress certified the election of Donald Trump as president. And Republicans control both houses of Congress.
Today, the Kentucky General Assembly gavels into session. Republicans have super-majorities in both chambers.
And just as Trump, Musk, and the Trumplicans in DC will bring a storm of chaos and destruction, so too will our own GOPers.
Lest you think I am being too hard on Stivers and Osborne and their band of marauders, consider what past sessions have brought us:
- The goal of eliminating the state income tax, which provides 40% of the state’s budget
- Continual attacks on LGBTQ persons in our state, especially trans
- The total elimination of a woman’s right to control her own body
- Criminalizing being homeless, including fines and jail time
- One of the worst criminal-justice bills in the country
- Every-session attacks on our public schools, especially Jefferson County
- Outlawing programs designed to increase and celebrate diversity and inclusion
- Making all their work and documents exempt from public scrutiny via open records requests
- Short-circuiting the legislative process so they can ramrod a bill from committee to passage in a single day
- Gutting transparency by eliminating the pre-filing of bills, giving committee chairs the right to call up any bill they wish without warning, and using “mule bills” to sneak in the bill they really want in place of one that has already had two readings
Just because the Republicans in Frankfort don’t get front page coverage in the Washington Post doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of being just as destructive for our state.
Are they capable of doing some good things and passing some good legislation? Of course. Even marauders have been known to have soft spots in their hearts and to do good deeds.
But in the end, if we judge them by their actions, “public servant” is way down the list in their job description. “Power keeper” is at the top, with “secrets holder” as the next bullet point.
So batten down the hatches and tie yourself to the mast. The storm is coming in DC – but reaches Frankfort today at noon.
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