Soon-to-be Gov. Steve Beshear can transform how the world sees Kentucky and how Kentuckians see themselves
Matt Gunterman November 5th, 2007
Yesterday morning a German friend emailed me to say that The New York Times Sunday travel section was running a feature on the finer qualities of bourbon and bluegrass in Kentucky.
He’s read much about Kentucky lately, and it’s intriguing him. Just last week, both the London-based Guardian newspaper and The American Prospect magazine ran pieces on the growth of progressive culture and politics in Kentucky. These follow in the wake of Bob Moser’s monumental cover story on Kentucky for The Nation in September.
When Terence Samuel, who authored the Guardian and TAP articles, interviewed me, he made the comment, “Everyone’s talking about Kentucky.”
People around the world are talking about Kentucky because — right here, right now — Kentuckians are offering them hope. In us they see the potential that the American spirit that has inspired so many generations of the past is finally awakening and is ready to take on the wicked specter that is the creation of hate- and fear-mongers like Pres. George W. Bush (R), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R), Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), and Rep. Stan Lee (R).
They see it in the workers who are out canvassing neighborhoods today. They see it in the peace demonstrators who are agitating to end a senseless war. They see it in the families who are fighting for their children’s health care. They see it in the crusade to protect and restore our environment. They see it in people of faith who are standing up to the bigots and bullies who have dominated Kentucky pulpits for too long.
The evidence is all around that something is happening in Kentucky, and the world is hungry for that something to be a people who are innovative, bold, tolerant, and progressive.
There is not a thing about McConnell, Fletcher, or Lee that’s any of those things. They are instead calculating, rigid, bullying, and conservative.
Soon-to-be Governor-elect Steve Beshear (D) will have the opportunity to communicate to the world what the new Kentucky is all about.
Ernie Fletcher saw “selling” Kentucky as a mere re-branding exercise. Nothing of the substance changed, and the discerning public could see through that. Fletcher’s take on “unbridled spirit” was anything but.
But Beshear can change the substance because he is not beholden to the baser elements of Kentucky society; his opponent will win the vote of every sort of bigot our state has to offer. With Kentucky’s urban center of Louisville poised to enter a sort of renaissance (barring the next Bush recession undermining its growth), Kentucky can become part of a new face for the United States to the rest of the world, one that is dynamic and provocative, welcoming and welcomed.
Kentucky can’t move forward on jobs, education, or other quality of life issues if it doesn’t tackle those elements of its culture that are holding the state back, and Beshear is well positioned to change the conversation and move down a different path.
- Bigotry , Conservatism , Ernie Fletcher , Fascism , Gubernatorial race '07 , Homophobia , Kentucky , Kentucky Dems , Kentucky GOP , Mitch McConnell , Organized Labor , Religious Fanaticism , Republican Fascism , Republican Party Decline , Stan Lee , Steve Beshear
- Comments(3)
Beasher, and other democratic canidates in this bible belt state, have been much too busy trying to be ‘holier than thou’ in their campaigns. To take KY down another path, we need fundamental change, not the same old biblical crap.
Sombody once said “when the end of the earth comes, I want to be in KY, ’cause everything happens 20 years later there. ”
I would vote for anybody over Earnest Lee, but I predict ‘buyers remorse’ soon, just like at the national level.
I think the quote was of Mark Twain.
Matt said: “Kentucky can’t move forward on jobs, education, or other quality of life issues if it doesn’t tackle those elements of its culture that are holding the state back, and Beshear is well positioned to change the conversation and move down a different path.”
You’ve got that right! My ‘home state’ is Kentucky and I left Louisville in 1979 because of Kentucky’s provincial, stunted, Bible-thumping attitudes. I have considered moving back many times. But, on my family visits back to Kentucky, I havn’t seen much progress over the last 20 years or so.
Good luck to My old Kentucky home!!