Matt Gunterman March 28th, 2007

Last night, in reference to all the problems Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky GOP political machine has been experiencing in recent years, I was asked the question, “Where do you think things started going wrong?”

And my answer was: from the very beginning. The fatal flaws in McConnell’s operation were there from the start and they are in some sense an extension of McConnell’s own quirks of personality and character.

If you’re a member of the Millennial Generation (or Gen Y, if that suits your fancy) in Kentucky, then you like me grew up and came of political age in the 90’s and watched how McConnell and his minions built their party.

Specifically, you saw the types of people around you that were being recruited and promoted into that machinery.

Sen. Mitch McConnell himself is a man whose talents are very narrowly focused; he’s by no means a Renaissance Man. He’s attracted to process and, as such, he likes a stable environment because in a stable environment his methods work predictably.

Change and dynamism are the things that McConnell hates most because he and his operation are extremely slow at digesting such change and adapting to it.

That fact, in an emergent era of rapid change in the national context, goes a long way towards explaining his recent political miscalculations as Senate Minority Leader.

McConnell doesn’t like people with a creative knack in his operation. Or, put another way, he’s very suspicious of people who are intelligent enough to think outside the box.

The ability to think outside the box has never been a quality that Mitch McConnell rewarded among his servile dependents. McConnell has always valued a sort of unthinking, unquestioning loyalty to the machine and dedication to its perpetuation as is.

That’s why, even with massive change about to rock our society, McConnell isn’t looking for ways to adapt his party to new political realities. Instead, he’s looking for ways to preserve the status quo. It was the same strategy he employed with his opposition to campaign finance reform. He will do anything to maintain the environment that he’s mastered.

From the very beginning, McConnell built his party from people who were competent at best (and that’s proven to be not a very common trait; see: Sen. Jim Bunning, Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and protégé J. Scott Jennings) and just spectacularly moronic at worst (see: Sen. Jim Bunning, Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and protégé J. Scott Jennings among many, many others).

The machine was effective for a time because it was operating in an environment where Kentucky Democrats were less organized and were struck by frequent bouts of disunity. Moreover, McConnell’s machine drew its energy from the rising national conservative tide, which was going strong throughout the 90’s.

But now that ideological tide is measurably waning and Democrats and their allies in Kentucky have gotten their act together: organized labor is revitalized, progressive religion has renewed purpose, and liberalism is finding its voice and the people are listening with intent ears.

The imperfections inherent to McConnell’s Kentucky GOP are hindering its competitiveness, and Democrats are overtaking it.

Kentucky’s progressives will beat back the McConnell machine because we’ve cast our net wide and have recruited amazing talent, and all the money in the world can’t buy that for the opposition.

• Kentucky GOP , Mitch McConnell , Republican Party Decline
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