A Warning From a Democrat in a Red State

Introversion

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Worth remembering.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/warning-democrat-red-state/617501/

The Atlantic said:
As a novelist, I often travel the country to talk about my books. During those events, almost invariably someone will ask me why my home state of Kentucky is so conservative. Many of these people ask why we’ve kept Mitch McConnell in office for almost 36 years. They take their anger at him out on me.

Once, a fellow writer told me I shouldn’t have been invited to a literary conference because of my state’s complicity in McConnell’s obstructionism during Barack Obama’s presidency. “Aren’t you ashamed to be a Kentuckian?” he asked, spittle flying from his lips. Recently, during a virtual event while I was discussing the theme of forgiveness in my novels, a woman typed into the comments: “I guess we’ll just have to forgive you for Mitch McConnell.”

Time and again, I’ve been called out for his presence in the Senate—during Q&As in front of a thousand people and in whispers at the signing table after events. For all of these people, I was the living embodiment of every voter in the state who had betrayed them. I can’t blame them for hating McConnell. Hardly anyone has done more to impede our democracy, and empower Donald Trump, than him. The latest example of his constant failure of the American people came last week when he blocked a vote on $2,000 in stimulus money, denying low-income and middle-class Americans an increase in much-needed aid.

Sometimes it feels as though all citizens of red states are lumped together, as if everyone here, especially those in rural areas, is the same. In early December when McConnell shot down the $908 billion stimulus plan, Twitter lit up with hatred for Kentuckians. Shortly before the November election, the MSNBC journalist Joy Reid tweeted her dismay with the state’s voters. Her followers responded by talking about the stupidity of Kentuckians, many posting memes of shirtless men with mullets or declarations that all people in the state are white supremacists. After the election, the hashtag #FuckKentucky was popular on Twitter. Social media is not known for its decorum, but what troubled me more than the hashtag was the way Kentuckians were painted with broad strokes as hicks, hillbillies, and a host of derogatory terms who live in “the armpit of America” and who wouldn’t deserve pity even if we were “ravaged by COVID.” These volatile responses trouble me, not only because I don’t like being reduced to a stereotype, but also because that response feeds the GOP rhetoric I hear at home: The liberals just think you’re deplorable, so why not flex your muscle any way you can to spit in their faces?

Tens of thousands of us here in Kentucky are fighting for progressive causes, even as we are forced to defend ourselves against other liberals in the country who should be supporting us. I’m not organizing a pity party. Instead, I’m issuing a warning: Everyday Democrats need to see beyond the electoral map to acknowledge the folks pushing for liberal ideas even in the reddest of areas. If they don’t, the cultural divide will grow only wider.

...
 

MaeZe

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the Atlantic article said:
Everyday Democrats need to see beyond the electoral map to acknowledge the folks pushing for liberal ideas even in the reddest of areas. If they don’t, the cultural divide will grow only wider.
While this guy is complaining about being lumped in with the voters who elected McConnell, he is lumping all Democrats or liberals in with the people who are reacting negatively to everyone in Kentucky. As a nurse I am reminded to have empathy for angry people like the ones attacking all Kentuckians. I have empathy for this author. But I'm not sure how I feel about being lumped in with the people reacting to this author when I'm not one of them.

It would have been nice had they noted that. ;)
 
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Roxxsmom

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Hate is never a constructive emotion, and anger should be directed at the people who deserve it and be constructive, not destructive.

The divide is getting worse. There are some states I would never live in now, thanks to their dominant politics. And I know some people who have left CA and are now "gloating" about their low gas taxes and "freedom" to do whatever it was they weren't allowed to do here from places like Nevada, Montana, Texas and so on. All this increases the polarization.

I still don't completely fathom the reason for the rage. I get why poor blue-collar and rural people feel society has left them behind and that mainstream politicians from both parties ignore them economically (if not socially). They are quite literally trapped in poverty and can't move someplace with more jobs, because it's too expensive to start over in prosperous areas. I don't understand what so many folks who are well off, who have been to college, and who had property and reasonable prosperity in blue states are so angry about, though.

*And yes, as Maeze said as well, there are plenty of liberals who aren't frothing at him and assuming all Kentuckians vote the same. There's a selection effect at work here, where he's going to receive this treatment from the angriest and most irrational people. But I am still worried we are heading to a place where more and more liberals become angry and vengeful.
 
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Brightdreamer

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The problem is that nobody else but Kentucky can do anything about the malignant serpent that is Mitch McConnell. If there's a football team where one player keeps kicking the other players in the head every game, and the team keeps fielding the head-kicker in every game, despite knowing how he kicks heads... people are gonna start getting upset with the entire team for not doing something about that guy, even though many of the players don't kick heads and some say they don't like head-kicking. And it doesn't matter to the people whose heads are being kicked that he's the coach's son, or his family pays for their uniforms, or the owners have decided he sells too many tickets to let go, or whatever reason there is why he hasn't been booted from the sport. All they see is that they're being kicked in the head, and the team that could remove the head-kicker from the game keeps bringing him back.

That said, there definitely is a problem with the Democratic leadership, in that the left (and center) have been completely bulldozed for years, decades even, by the relentless and unfortunately effective minority on the hard right. They seem content with moral victories and performative protests - sarcastic hand clap, anyone? - over tangible policy gains, and they're playing by yesterday's chess rules when the board is now Monopoly and their opponents are literally printing their own money and get-out-of-jail-free cards right in front of everyone and laughing. I don't know what needs fixing or how it can be fixed, but I know what's happening now is clearly not working.
 

MaeZe

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Roxxsmom said:
I still don't completely fathom the reason for the rage. I get why poor blue-collar and rural people feel society has left them behind and that mainstream politicians from both parties ignore them economically (if not socially). They are quite literally trapped in poverty and can't move someplace with more jobs, because it's too expensive to start over in prosperous areas. I don't understand what so many folks who are well off, who have been to college, and who had property and reasonable prosperity in blue states are so angry about, though.
I believe sparks have been stoked into that rage with very clever marketing persuasion.

Until the Democrats figure that out, we'll have few tools to fight the fire.
 

Roxxsmom

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Oh, there's definitely been a campaign to enrage people, but the politics of grievance tend to work best on folks who already feel aggrieved about something. Now some white male types are aggrieved because they feel that women or people who aren't White are getting breaks they aren't, never mind the fact that White males are still over represented in high-status professions, government, academia and so on, and make more money than women or Black and Latino people in the same jobs with the same experience and credentials.

I have more trouble understanding why so many women (and smaller but real numbers of Latinx and Black voters) would vote for a man who has expressed unmitigated sexism and racism in word and deed. I'm sure this is just a statistical glitch, since these are folks I know from the agility world (and dog sports folks are more often women), but most of the people I know best who have succumbed to the right-wing grievance cult are middle-aged-or-older women of comfortable means.
 

cbenoi1

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The problem is that nobody else but Kentucky can do anything about the malignant serpent that is Mitch McConnell.

This. It's a a level of granularity problem. When you look this up from far away, the colored blobs gets melted together. I've read and seen this before. "The Americans have elected Trump." is usually followed by "But I voted for Hilary." Hmmm. Yeah. But.


{...} there definitely is a problem with the Democratic leadership {...}

This has been noted by AOC - that the campaign was as run as if it was 2004.


-cb
 

JJ Litke

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This is the same kind of thing that upset me a few weeks back, when someone made a shitty joke about Texas, acted like it was my problem if that bothered me, and no one else said a word. Apparently I’m still bitter about it, since it popped up in my head immediately on seeing this thread.
 

frimble3

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Most of the people I know best who have succumbed to the right-wing grievance cult are middle-aged-or-older women of comfortable means.
I wonder how many of these 'comfortable women' are grieving the fact that the world is changing and they have no control?
A lot of 'older' women (I am 60) who are well-off are of a generation where the men did most of the moneymaking and the position-attaining. Either women did little to get where they were, or they had to work twice as hard to get anything: money or position.
Now, in their eyes, everything is handed to people on a plate, people they thought of as 'unworthy' are succeeding, having kids doesn't end a woman's ambitions,
heck, women don't have to get married, they can go into professions without being considered freaks - you think all that doesn't build up a sense of grievance?
They were good, conservative women, and their world was fine, until those uppity liberals messed everything up.
 

Introversion

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This is the same kind of thing that upset me a few weeks back, when someone made a shitty joke about Texas, acted like it was my problem if that bothered me, and no one else said a word. Apparently I’m still bitter about it, since it popped up in my head immediately on seeing this thread.

I shuttled between New England (Connecticut and Massachusetts) and the Midwest (Iowa and Missouri) multiple times as a child and adult. Each incipient move caused people to say, “Why the hell would you want to move to that sh*thole!?” :ROFL:

I feel like it should be an unwritten rule that you can talk smack about a state and/or its people only if you’ve lived there for at least a year yourself? :D
 

Roxxsmom

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I'm sorry, JJ.

I didn't make it clear enough at the time that I wasn't talking about everyone in Texas. I assumed folks here knew me well enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, but in hindsight, that wasn't a good thing to say or assume.

But if I lived there, I think I'd still be very frustrated and angry about the political situation and at the majority of my fellow Texans. I was furious at my own state back in 2008 when the majority voted to overturn the right of same sex couples to marry, and don't even get me started about how I felt about Colorado politics when I lived there in the 90s.

Edit: And I feel bad and am sorry that I hurt JJ, who is a person whose posts I find thought provoking and interesting.
 
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nighttimer

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Here's the key sentence in that whiny little article for me: Yes, the majority of voters in Kentucky are fervent supporters of Trump and McConnell.

Well, that's it, isn't it? Until the majority of voters in Kentucky aren't fervent supporters of Trump and McConnell, what am I supposed to do about it?

I gave money to ActBlue to Democrat challenger Amy McGrath to run against Republican incumbent Moscow Mitch McConnell and she raised over $90 million to beat the bastard. What did it get me? McConnell stomped McGrath by nearly 20 points and coasted to reelection.

I don't want to hear from activists and progressives whining about "everybody hates me cuz I'm from Kentucky." I really don't. I don't hate Kentucky. I go there all the time to buy some of the state's excellent bourbon. What I hate are the state's two terrible U.S. Senators (Moscow Mitch and Rand Paul) and until one, or both are gone, then they are the bad guys holding and wielding power and all the good liberals are not.

What Amy McGrath does from here on out doesn't matter to me unless she takes to heart the lessons to be learned from losing to McConnell and comes back stronger, tougher and smarter to run against Paul in 2022. Why not? In politics, second acts are a tradition.

So what’s next for the former Marine after losing her second race? At an event Tuesday night in Georgetown she wasn’t sure.


“I’m somebody that’s always fought for my country, I’ve always tried to do the right thing,” McGrath said.


WKYT’s political expert Bill Bryant says if McGrath runs again, winning is still within reach.


“You can ask any number of candidates who have done it and they will tell you it’s possible. Steve Beshear was defeated for governor once, and for U.S. senator once, then came back 10 years after his defeat in the senate race and became a two-term governor,” Bryant said.


Critics say McGrath may have had better luck going against less powerful opponents or even running for nonpartisan, local races.


“It is a very deep, urban-rural divide in the state, and it’s very difficult right now for a progressive Democrat to win statewide,” Bryant said.


Though as the saying goes, anything can happen in politics.

True 'dat. Just look a little further down south to what is happening in Georgia. A blood red Southern state voted for Joe Biden, sent two incumbent Republican senators packing (and changed McConnell's official title to 'Senate MINORITY Leader') and made the sitting Republican governor very nervous. Because a Black woman named Stacey Yvonne Abrams took a defeat at Brian Kemp's hands for the governor office and turned it into a mission to rain hell down on the G.O.P.

Not entirely her doing, but certainly led by her will and determination, Stacey Abrams has led a political renaissance in Georgia, beaten Trump, Loeffler, Perdue and shocked the system.

Why can't this happen in Kentucky? Why can't this happen in my own state of Ohio that has gone from red to purple to back to red again? Why can't this happen in the whole damn country?

I'm pretty much over these kind of articles in The Atlantic and everywhere else where White libs have these dire "warnings" about how the rest of us shouldn't look down our noses and blow off their efforts to flip the political dynamics of their state. Two words: STOP. WHINING.

In business the saying goes, "Don't just bring problems. Bring solutions." If Mr. Silas House, the author of The Atlantic story were present, I'd like to ask him who he knows there that liked him enough to publish this drivel and now that he's through sucking his thumb about face-planting in the last election, what's he going to do in the next election to be able to take a victory lap?

Because whatever he's done before, it hasn't been enough. Do more. Do better. Don't tell me what you plan to do. Show me what you've done. If that sounds coldly unsympathetic, thank you for recognizing my intention to be cold and unsympathetic. There is always ample time to cry. There is never enough time to make the world better than the way you found it.

Today, is January 6th. In Georgia, a Black Baptist preacher and a Jewish former aide to the immortal John Lewis are preparing to go to Washington and give President-Elect Joe Biden a Democratic-run Senate to change this country for the better. In Washington, our elected "leaders" will gather to certify the results of the November election where a majority of the American people told Trump that in no uncertain terms that was once and for all FIRED and a LOSER.

If Silas House thinks his pissing and moaning means any more to me than the pissing and moaning of Trump and a handful of seditious Republican thugs, he is sadly mistaken. The last stand of the defeated and their rationalizations will not worry my mind because Freddie Mercury and the boys said it better than me. We are the champions/No time for losers/'Cause we are the champions of the world.

Feel free to disagree. :fistpump:yessmiley
 

JJ Litke

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Thanks, Roxxsmom, I really do appreciate you.

But if I lived there, I think I'd still be very frustrated and angry about the political situation and at the majority of my fellow Texans.

You're damn right I'm angry. My state is responsible for Ted Cruz, so I'm taking ownership by working on figuring out how we can have him removed from office. I've already called his office and left a detailed voicemail (of course they aren't answering now) about why he needs to resign immediately. Apparently we don't have a recall election option, our only hope is to have Congress dismiss him. I keep looking around for some group working on this, but it's starting to look like if I want it to happen I'll have to organize it myself (for god's sake if someone sees info on this, please let me know, I'm flying blind on this). Even if we aren't successful, it should help to ruin any chance he has of ever being reelected.
 

Roxxsmom

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I read an article the other day about Texans who are pressuring Ted Cruz to resign or exploring other ways to remove him from office. And I heard several Democratic representatives from Texas arguing passionately for impeachment yesterday.

We do look at states as being "all red" or "all blue," because that's how they show up on the electoral map and they get only two Senators, elected by popular vote within their states, and only one governor. But even the "reddest" and "bluest" of states have districts belonging to the other party and sizeable minorities of (often Gerrymandered) voters belonging to the other party. A fifty five to forty five split in population leads to a ten point margin of victory, which is a landslide, and with gerrymandering, it leads to a much more pronounced difference in legislative districts at both the state and federal level.

I know people here in CA who are as conservative as any in Kentucky, Texas, or Wyoming, and I know there are folks in red states who are much more liberal. And we still get weird things, even in very blue or red states, such as Massachusetts electing a Republican governor. And not all that long ago (to us older folks, anyway), Rudy "the leaky lawyer" was mayor of New York, which even back then was a very cosmopolitan and "blue" city. I lived in Northern NY back then, and Guiliani's Republican-ness in no way mollified the rural conservatives who railed about the big city's "liberal politics" ruining everything for the rural parts of the state.

One thing Trump has done is bring folks who were previously silent about their political leanings, whether left or right, out of the woodwork, and he and his boot-licking sycophants in government and the media have polarized people (and candidates) even further, so it's harder and harder for many of us to even consider not voting for someone of the other party.

I think most people expressing frustration with the politics of a given state know not everyone in that state is the same way, just as most BLM supporters know not all cops abuse black people and most members of marginalized groups know plenty of members of more privileged groups are allies. It can be frustrating to have someone say "not all men" or "not all cops" or "not all Kentuckians" when one is being critical at the group level.

But we do live in times where venting and hyperbole can change the way people think to the point it becomes truth to some (and then those inciting violence get to step back and insist they were "just" being hyperbolic and didn't mean for a violent mob to attack someone or something).

It scares me that this country could be heading for another civil war, of sorts. War is always scary, but I don't see how we could actually win one, or even become two separate and stable countries, where the political divide lies more along urban-rural and educational lines than along a neat, regional border.
 
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