Fighting words may not be discouraging words
Fourth in the Kentucky Conservatives Unite! series
The entrance of Savannah Maddox in the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial race last week brings a new slant. Her angle is not necessarily further right than her current opponents, but it feels that way.
She is not afraid to spotlight hard realities that some may view as water under the bridge. Example: Are the Beshear lockdowns on churches, healthcare institutions and small businesses merely past history? Has the ‘executive orders’ controversy really been settled? Savannah wants to stir that pot.
What did it feel like not to be able to visit your loved one in the nursing home? To lose your hospital career when you refused to be vaccinated? To close the doors of your once thriving small business forever? To see your children suffer from masks and ‘home incarceration’? To be vaccinated in order to keep your job at UPS and now you don’t feel as well as you once did?
Savannah has not forgotten you. But it is hard to believe that her opponents have. Fighting words like Savannah’s in her campaign video are not a threat to fellow conservatives— Mike Harmon, Daniel Cameron or Ryan Quarles— who have no reason to fear.
We can be sure that Savannah will force this issue into the debate and if those who were harmed by Andy Beshear’s executive orders perceive that she will stand against such abuse more forcefully than the other candidates, it will be to her advantage. People do not quickly forget pain and sorrow, and many no longer believe the ‘narrative’ on the pandemic.
If Republicans will carefully argue their points and not smear each other, giving the Dems an edge, and if they will pull together after the May 2023 Primary—less than a year away— maybe Kentucky can return to its Trifecta status.
We know there are ‘Commonwealth Conservatives’ at work to hamstring certain Republicans. Direct mail and Facebook ads targeted Maddox and five other candidates in the Primary. This group did not identify itself with the Ky. Registry of Election Finance which is required if a group spends over $500. CC spent $21,000. Maddox has filed a formal complaint to discover who is behind the PAC.
Maddox is not alone in her focus on COVID-19 tyranny. Just last Friday, June 10, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) requested clarity from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on what Health and Human Services plans for ‘transitioning out of the COVID-19 public health emergency.’
The letter specifically requested information on how changes in temporary, pandemic-related policies will affect Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) patients and providers in the coming months. “For frontline health care providers and patients, the administration’s erratic approach to transitioning beyond a perpetual state of pandemic emergency could prove particularly problematic.”
It was signed by 25 senators including Rand Paul.
Though the MSM COVID rhetoric may diminish as Nov. 8 draws near, don’t be fooled:
June 13 2022 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration published a report to justify authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for infants and toddlers....
June 9 2022 - The Biden administration today said it has made available 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5 to states and healthcare workers with “millions more available in the coming weeks.”
June 9 2022 - Kentuckians can be vaccinated against COVID-19 and save on gas this week at Kroger Field. …a clinic will be offering free COVID vaccines and boosters ... Each person who receives a shot will be given a $25 gas card.
June 7 2022 - Novavax’s two-dose dose COVID-19 vaccine for adults ages 18 and older cleared a key step on the path toward Food and Drug Administration authorization on Tuesday.
Fighting words can be discouraging
As this blog series promised at the start, we will try to learn from the past how not to proceed as this and the next election year unfold. A look back at Republican Dan Seum’s endorsement of Beshear is instructive.
Seum made headlines in August (2019) when he broke ranks with his party to endorse the campaign of (then) Attorney General Andy Beshear… In a video announcing that endorsement, Seum blasted Bevin for making numerous disparaging comments about public school teachers who protested pension legislation supported by the governor.
“Today, we have a governor who has failed miserably in the pension issue and has spent the last year running around the state insulting everyone, including the four teachers in my family,” Seum said in the video.
Setting the record straight
Breaking ranks is a disruption that must be countered. In reply to Seum’s false statement and sad disloyalty, Rep. Kevin Bratcher (R-29) pushed back with an OpEd to the C-J:
On Sept. 5, State Sen. Dan Seum wrote an opinion piece in The Courier Journal where he claimed Gov. Matt Bevin should be disqualified from the upcoming election due to the way he operates his duties as governor.
Seum has always been a friend and mentor to me, and we represent much of the same areas, so it was bewildering to see how he failed to mention the many positive things the governor has accomplished in his first four years. Two things I am sure Seum is aware of are very important. They are: Improvements in Kentucky’s economy and Kentucky’s pension systems.
Kentucky’s economy has simply seen some of its best days under the Bevin administration. Business is booming and the outlook is nothing but clear skies fueled by $20 billion in new business that has come to Kentucky since Bevin took office. Evidence of this remarkable economy can be seen in Kentucky unemployment numbers decreasing to amazing lows, with African American unemployment lower than it has ever been. Kentucky is open for business, and we have a governor doing the hard work to make it so.
Secondly, the Kentucky pension system is having its best years in decades thanks to Bevin’s leadership. Personally, I have heard Bevin say during late-night work sessions with the legislature that we cannot stop working till all of the pension systems are in good health. I have never heard a previous governor make such a bold statement…
Such encouraging words! Did the teachers know these facts? Do they now?
Encouraging words can also be fighting words and they must be broadly published.