Kentucky Politics: The View From the Snout

10/17/2014

Blue State

Red State

“They’ve had their turn at the trough; now it’s our turn.”

I covered an election in Kentucky in the early ‘70’s. I don’t remember who won. Obviously, it didn’t matter. I only remember somebody from the winning side blurting the above statement, unabashed.

I was reminded of that party functionary when I read the excellent essay by Juliet Lapidos in the Times, about the senatorial race in the state where I lived for a while (and which I love for a lot of reasons, if not the politics.)

Allison Lundergan Grimes is running against one of the more unpopular and unpleasant members of the Senate (a huge accomplishment right there), Mitch McConnell.

She is also running against the President of the United States, who happens to be in the same party as Grimes. She will not even discuss her vote in the past two presidential elections, which is disgraceful.

McConnell has taken very few stands in his squishy career, but one of them was telling the folks that his prime duty from November of 2008 was to sabotage the presidency of Barack Obama. His sly lisping voice sounds like some of the old Dixiecrats of mid-century who, by innuendo and tone, used to let their constituents know where they stood on race.

The political posture of the past six years has been a winking referendum on race. People feel comfortable saying they “just don’t like” Barack Obama. And leading the pack has been Mitch McConnell.

Now, somebody who calls herself a Democrat is marching lock step with McConnell.. Lundergan is speaking up for Big Coal, which, as I understand it, accounts for 7 percent of the Kentucky economy, but vastly more of its brute influence.

Nothing subtle about Allison Lundergan Grimes. The Democrats need every Senate seat they can win in November, so they have to accept somebody who says she is a “Clinton Democrat,” whatever that means.

What Lundergan could say right now is: “The Republicans have tried to downsize government, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now in a time of crisis, they cry for government action.” Instead, she marches with Mitch McConnell in the Big Coal parade.

Some people who now identify as Elizabeth Warren Democrats may celebrate the grand diversity of the party, which allows people with principles and people without principles to co-exist under the big tent. How democratic is that? The Grimes message is: Mitch McConnell is odious – no surprise there – but now it is the Kentucky Democrats’ turn at the trough. Oink.

6 Comments

Brian

10/19/2014 01:39:58 am

In my view, "My Old Kentucky Home," or any home in this country with special character, can still be deservedly romanticized. The people and the politics are very separate. Politics has become the great "unifying" force in our country in a very bad sense: All across our land too many elections give people a sad choice between the same two candidates -- the Gangster-in-drag, or the Stupid guy.

Elizabeth Warren is a throw back. She's a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. She's a Franklyn Roosevelt Democrat. She's an Elenore Roosevelt humanist. She doesn't have a party in our country today. She has only the heart and soul of our forebears, and, like a Middle Ages monk, she keeps the great wisdom of our heritage alive by the light of a very tiny flame.

George Vecsey

10/19/2014 03:00:27 am

Brian, thanks. Did you happen to see Garry Trudeau on Steve Kornacki's show on MSNBC Sunday morning, talking about how Warren galvanized workers on the set of his TV sitcom? He wasn't endorsing her, just talking about her impact on people. GV

Brian Savin

10/19/2014 07:04:35 am

No, but thanks, I'll try to find it via the wire. Sunday mornings I'm partial to a good breakfast followed by the Fordham guy (Osgood).
ps to Alan: I'm glad Nadler had surgery years ago; he too much resembled Mr. Creosote and I didn't think he had too much longer left. I think his Party is better off having him around to help keep them honest.

Thor A. Larsen

10/19/2014 03:27:04 am

Allison Grimes may not be the best Democratic candidate, but to me she is very acceptable if she beats Mitch McConnell who is outrageous in his view about President Obama and his attitude of blocking any meaningful legislation. I share above views on Eliabeth Warren, who is most likely the brighest and most knowlegeable senator and along with her knowledge, an exceptional speaker, (So, I remain very hopeful for the future in spite of the bigot from Kentucky and the Koch brothers.)

Alan Rubin link

10/19/2014 04:52:14 am

Elizabeth Warren is not just an unusual politician. She is a remarkable person, with all the values that matter, who happens to be in politics.

I first met her in Pittsfield when she held twelve exploratory meetings around Massachusetts to determine whether to run for the senate.

She was on target with every subject, but she talked (with enthusiasm) lake a person, not a politician.

When I lived in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, I worked for the campaigns of Representative Jerry Nadler, former NY State Senator Franz Leichter and current Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer—all caring and dedicated public officials for whom I have the utmost respect.

I met Warren several more times while working on her senate campaign against Scott Brown. It was a classic contest between polar opposites.

Elizabeth Warren stands for what she believes, doggedly stays on message and won’t be intimidated.

Our country would be better served if more politicians had her integrity, regardless of their political orientation.

Minnesota Sex Bar link

11/11/2022 06:12:18 am

This was great to read, thank you.

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QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

Kentucky Politics: The View From the Snout

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