Reaping What You Sow, An Update

Unfortunately, in the recent gubernatorial election in Kentucky, voters (at least a majority of the 30% who managed to get off the sofa and vote) opted for ultra- right Tea Party Republican Matt Bevin, including this guy, Dennis Blackburn:

The 56-year-old mechanic hasn’t worked in 18 months, since he lost his job at a tire company that supplies a diminishing number of local coal mines.  [snip]

He has a hereditary liver disorder, numbness in his hands and legs, back pain from folding his 6-foot-1-inch frame into 29-inch mine shafts as a young man, plus an abnormal heart rhythm — the likely vestige of having been struck by lightning 15 years ago in his tin-roofed farmhouse.

Blackburn was making small payments on an MRI he’d gotten at Pikeville Medical Center, the only hospital in a 150-mile radius, when he heard about Big Sandy’s Shelby Valley Clinic. There he met Fleming, who helped him sign up for one of the managed-care Medicaid plans available in Kentucky.

On Election Day, Blackburn voted for Bevin because he is tired of career politicians and thought a businessman would be more apt to create the jobs that Pike County so needs.  (our emphasis)

Of course, now Blackburn, and possibly many of the 55 percent of voters in impoverished Pike County who voted for Bevin, are worried he'll actually end the Medicaid expansion program -- what he promised to do throughout the election campaign!!  (It raises the issue of a simple test that could be administered before voting:  give the voter a piece of paper with two dots and if the person can't connect them, send them home.)

If this guy isn't the perfect future Trump voter ("he's a businessman" not a "career politician" after all!), we don't know who is.  As Charles Pierce said so well to those simple- minded voters who consistently vote against their self- interest (as well as those who can't be bothered to vote at all), "good luck and enjoy your freedom!"

Quote of the Day, Reaping What You Sow Edition

Apropos of the post below, Esquire.com's Charles P. Pierce has this to say about the election of ultra right-wing Matt Bevin be Governor of Kentucky and the terrible impact it will have on the health of hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians:

"Make no mistake. Kentuckians voted to decimate a popular health-care system, and to make Kentucky a right to work state last night. They did so because Bevin mobilized the Kim Davis vote and spread enough Jeebus around that people (again) voted against their own best interests. (Also, it should be noted that Bevin plans to throw responsibility for the poor and the sick onto the rest of us. You're welcome, dickhead.) If your outrage over the treatment of a crackpot goldbricking county clerk outweighs the possibility that your aging grandmother is going to die of a treatable illness then, well, I don't know what to say to you except good luck and enjoy your freedom."(emphasis added)

For the Kim Davis voters, we would also add, "pray you don't get sick."

Stupidity + Chicanery + Indifference = Republican Victories

Yesterday's off- year elections were a mixed bag for progressives, but generally not good.  Mix low- information (but angry!) voters with a hint of chicanery and subtract indifferent Democrats who can't get "motivated" to show up at the polls (only 31 percent of the electorate showed up) and you have Republican wins.

Karoli at Crooks & Liars has an interesting take on the results from the state elections in Kentucky yesterday:

Look at these races. Compare the number of votes cast for Democrats.

Jack Conway: 426,964
Alison Lundergan Grimes 493,600
Andy Beshear 479,929
Adam Edelen (who still lost) 450,316
[snip]

In order to believe these results as they are right now, we have to believe Democrats split the ticket and voted for Dems everywhere but the Governor's race. I'm not sure I buy that. [snip]

You know what that leaves for me? Voting machines.

Read the rest of the argument and you'll start to wonder if there was enough chicanery for the ultra- right- wing Republican Matt Bevin to prevail.  (We would also wonder how many Kentuckians who voted for Bevin are participants in the Kynect (state Obamacare) program and know he's promised to scuttle it.)

Meanwhile, No More Mister Nice Blog's Steve M. sees the results (and recent presidential polling) as a serious warning to progressives (we plead guilty) who assume the chaotic, nihilistic, racist, homophobic, hypocritical, science- denying, downright stupid sh*tshow that Republicans have been staging for years would have Americans running away in droves. Think again:

It may not matter how crazy the GOP candidate is -- Republicans are fired up in every election, desperate to nullify the Obama era, while it's difficult to inspire Democrats to vote. Why do we automatically assume that Democrats will suddenly be hungry for a win next year?

The right stirs up rage every day, in election season and out, so by Election Day there's a long list of grievances motivating Republican voters in every election. In Kentucky this year it may have been Kim Davis; in Houston, it was the specter of men in women's bathrooms. Next year, it'll be something else.

Are we sure something's going to motivate Democrats to vote next year -- even against Carson? Are we sure the polls won't be significantly underestimating Republicans' strength -- again? 

Maybe it's best to take a far more sanguine approach than to assume the average voter doesn't have their head up their ass.