I Guess Nietzsche Is Next Campaign Ad For Jack Conway?!

Rand Paul says only college pranks he remembers involved Nietzsche
By Joseph Gerth

Is Nietzsche next?

Among the stranger things that has come of this whole debate over religion between Democrat Jack Conway and Republican Rand Paul in the U.S. Senate race was Paul's telling radio host Laura Ingraham the only pranks he recalled in college involved forcing people to listen to him read the works a 19th century philosopher.

“The only thing I remember from college of these little pranks is that we were kind of nerds, we used to sometimes take people and we would read (Friedrich) Nietzsche to them because we thought we were really clever.”

Conway spent a week running an ad that accused Paul of joining a group that mocked Christianity and of forcing a woman to bow down to worship a false god Paul called “Aqua Buddha.”

So why is it odd that Paul would bring up Nietzsche?

Nietzsche was known for his writings that were critical of organized religion, especially Christianity, and he often employed the phrase “God is Dead” in his writings.

He once wrote: “In Christianity, neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.”

But it's doubtful Nietzsche will play a role in the race since he isn't the most well-known philosopher.
Mixing religion and politics

Conway's criticism of Paul and the implication he isn't a good Christian isn't the first time religion has been inserted into a major Kentucky political race, but it might be the first time in more than 40 years.

Sure, religion often finds its way into Kentucky races, but it's normally in the form of a candidate advocating his own beliefs, his attendance in church and his advocacy of all things Godly.

But in 1967, in what may have been one of the ugliest Republican primaries in Kentucky history, Louie B. Nunn won the GOP nomination for governor by attacking Jefferson County Judge-Executive Marlow Cook because Cook was Roman Catholic, like Conway.

In that race, one rural protestant pastor who supported Cook quit the campaign within a month after being pressured by his congregation to drop out.

In Jackson County, a prominent Republican told The Courier-Journal: “People around here aren't too high on Catholics. There are some Catholic families down the road here. We've gotten used to them by now, and we don't mind doing business with them. But a lot of people I hear talking about the primary say they don't want them mixing into politics. People I hear talk say they just don't like their religion.”

And while much of Cook's opposition came in the form of an anti-Catholic whisper campaign, Nunn himself couldn't help but point out Cook's religion when asked about the role religion would play in the race.

“Judge Cook has as much right to be Catholic as I have to be Protestant,” Nunn would say, drawing protests from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which was formed to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Catholic sentiment.
Java Jack

Conway would do well to get mugged next time he goes to campaign at a diner.

No, we're not talking about having someone hit him on the head with a pipe and take his wallet.

Someone needs to hand him a mug of the joint's brew.

During a campaign stop at Saundra's Café in Lexington on Thursday, my colleague Stephenie Steitzer reported Conway hopped out of his SUV and bounded into the restaurant with a cup of Starbucks coffee in his hand.

As he worked the mostly supportive crowd, he came upon 75-year-old Charlie Denham, a retired construction company owner who was sitting in the back of the restaurant.

“What kind of a guy would come into a restaurant and not drink their coffee?” asked Denham, a Republican who plans to vote for Paul.

Conway told Denham he didn't have time to finish his Starbucks before he got to Saundra's and planned to eat a full breakfast there after shaking hands.

It's not the first time Conway has eschewed a diner mug for a paper cup of a higher-priced joe. As a photo in the Oct. 10 Courier-Journal showed, he did the same thing at Jessie's Family Restaurant in Valley Station when he carried in a cup of Heine Brothers' coffee.

At least then it came from a locally owned bean shop.