Betty Winston Bayé Bemoans "Kentucky's Counterintuitive Vote Against Itself".
Kentucky's counterintuitive vote against itself
By Betty Winston Bayé
“I just voted not to give back America!” my cousin Jeffrey Hollingsworth in Baltimore wrote on Facebook after his trek to the polls Tuesday.
“My sentiments exactly,” I wrote back.
I don't know how Jeffrey's chosen candidates in Maryland fared overall, but here in Kentucky, some of mine won and, sadly, some were defeated. Elections, of course, aren't necessarily about who is best so much as who is best connected and who is best financed, and in this mid-term more than a few races boiled down to money, money, money — though it can rightly said that in some contests, voters weren't buying what the millionaires were selling.
But the day after an election, all that can be said is that voters have spoken. What the majority of Kentucky voters said Tuesday is that they didn't like candidate Barack Obama in 2008 (he lost the state) and they don't like President Obama now.
Still, it fascinates me that many Kentuckians are poor, unhealthy and uninsured, and yet they're opposed to so-called “Obamacare.” They like what they have now, which for many is no health care insurance at all.
And though thousands of Kentuckians absolutely rely, couldn't make it without government “handouts” of everything from food stamps to KCHIP to Medicaid to Section 8 subsidies, they vote for candidates who will gladly cut big holes in the social safety net.
Many Kentuckians every year are injured and some die in job-related accidents, including mine disasters. Yet, large numbers of voters in the state favor candidates whose grand ideas for “getting the government off our backs” includes easing up on government safety standards.
They're poor, but they vote for people opposed to the minimum wage, and instead of being embarrassed, many Kentuckians rushed to support the candidates who thinks it's OK for businesses to discriminate based on race.
It's not sour grapes when I say that the voting habits of many Kentuckians seem counterintuitive, considering the realities of their economic and social circumstances. Kentuckians get more help from the federal government than its people send to Washington in taxes.
Republican leaders cut a lot of deals with people who have extreme notions about the Constitution, immigration, religious freedoms, education, the social safety net, civil rights and gay rights. Now, they're challenged to try to harness the wild stallions they've invited into their herd.
I predict crazy times at the OK Corral.
It may turn out that Republican leaders will have an easier time trying to negotiate with Obama than with some of the people they've helped get elected.
As for Obama, well, he's been humbled too. His notions of a post-racial America have been smashed. He's going to have a tough row to hoe these two years, but maybe no harder than the first two years. And maybe not quite as hard since, with their newfound control of the House and having shaved the Democratic majority in the Senate to nearly zilch, Republicans now must put up or shut up.
Obama also has his own wild horses to contend with. Many progressives, African Americans, Latinos and gays were heavily invested in his historic 2008 victory. Now, they have gone from whispering to saying out loud that they're disenchanted — and angry, in fact — about being treated like somebody's crazy aunts. They feel they were consigned to hide out in the basement while the President devoted much of his first two years trying to win support from the people who said from Day One that their intent was for him to fail.
Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays in the Community Forum and online at www.courier-journal.com/opinion. Her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.
By Betty Winston Bayé
“I just voted not to give back America!” my cousin Jeffrey Hollingsworth in Baltimore wrote on Facebook after his trek to the polls Tuesday.
“My sentiments exactly,” I wrote back.
I don't know how Jeffrey's chosen candidates in Maryland fared overall, but here in Kentucky, some of mine won and, sadly, some were defeated. Elections, of course, aren't necessarily about who is best so much as who is best connected and who is best financed, and in this mid-term more than a few races boiled down to money, money, money — though it can rightly said that in some contests, voters weren't buying what the millionaires were selling.
But the day after an election, all that can be said is that voters have spoken. What the majority of Kentucky voters said Tuesday is that they didn't like candidate Barack Obama in 2008 (he lost the state) and they don't like President Obama now.
Still, it fascinates me that many Kentuckians are poor, unhealthy and uninsured, and yet they're opposed to so-called “Obamacare.” They like what they have now, which for many is no health care insurance at all.
And though thousands of Kentuckians absolutely rely, couldn't make it without government “handouts” of everything from food stamps to KCHIP to Medicaid to Section 8 subsidies, they vote for candidates who will gladly cut big holes in the social safety net.
Many Kentuckians every year are injured and some die in job-related accidents, including mine disasters. Yet, large numbers of voters in the state favor candidates whose grand ideas for “getting the government off our backs” includes easing up on government safety standards.
They're poor, but they vote for people opposed to the minimum wage, and instead of being embarrassed, many Kentuckians rushed to support the candidates who thinks it's OK for businesses to discriminate based on race.
It's not sour grapes when I say that the voting habits of many Kentuckians seem counterintuitive, considering the realities of their economic and social circumstances. Kentuckians get more help from the federal government than its people send to Washington in taxes.
Republican leaders cut a lot of deals with people who have extreme notions about the Constitution, immigration, religious freedoms, education, the social safety net, civil rights and gay rights. Now, they're challenged to try to harness the wild stallions they've invited into their herd.
I predict crazy times at the OK Corral.
It may turn out that Republican leaders will have an easier time trying to negotiate with Obama than with some of the people they've helped get elected.
As for Obama, well, he's been humbled too. His notions of a post-racial America have been smashed. He's going to have a tough row to hoe these two years, but maybe no harder than the first two years. And maybe not quite as hard since, with their newfound control of the House and having shaved the Democratic majority in the Senate to nearly zilch, Republicans now must put up or shut up.
Obama also has his own wild horses to contend with. Many progressives, African Americans, Latinos and gays were heavily invested in his historic 2008 victory. Now, they have gone from whispering to saying out loud that they're disenchanted — and angry, in fact — about being treated like somebody's crazy aunts. They feel they were consigned to hide out in the basement while the President devoted much of his first two years trying to win support from the people who said from Day One that their intent was for him to fail.
Betty Winston Bayé's column appears Thursdays in the Community Forum and online at www.courier-journal.com/opinion. Her e-mail address is bbaye@courier-journal.com.
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