Mitch is going to rue the day he led that filibuster against re-financing student loans. Elizabeth Warren and many who love her are going to take that out of his hide via Grimes.
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GO AFTER HIM, ALLISON. Punch HARD, especially in the wake of Cantorâs flame-out! Now is not the time to be nice!
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Abso-freakin-loutely, but most KYians are operating under the belief that coal is dying solely because of the EPA and that Kenyan in the WH. They think itâs all scary black president who is scary punishing them for being white or something. KYians believe this just as sure as we believe our favorite basketball team is going to win the NCAA Championship every year. It will take at least a decade to disabuse them of this notion and make them realize the Republicans âprotecting coalâ sold them up and down the river for natural gas.
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Well, âgrimeâ is right there in her name.
Seriously, though, I agree with NCSteve entirely. A Dem who backs emission caps isnât going to come from such a state, period. And itâs a lot better to have a Dem who will be with us on much than a GOPer out to tear down everything and everyone. She canât win with a progressive environmental agenda in KY, and thatâs that.
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Plucky, is it reasonable to hope that a Democratic senator could help get a slightly better deal from the coal companies in terms of environmental standards, workplace safety, etc., when the laws and regs get written?
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Not in Kentucky, you canât. Trust me, Iâm from there and I know my people. Theyâre no more capable of being rational about this kind of thing than a hard core nicotine addict is about the dangers of second hand smoke. The reaction comes entirely from their amygdalae. The people of that state have suffered from chronic income insecurity in every sectorâmanufacturing, mining, agriculture, and, since the Walmartization of all commerce in the state, retailâfor three decades and they all live in a daily state of terror over their ability to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.
And rightly or wrongly (and itâs mostly wrongly), that rising fear is temporally, and thus emotionally, related in their brains with the decline of coal employment as strip mining and mechanization have wiped out jobs. Shit, they know coal is terrible stuffâno one better. Theyâve lived with the black lung and the mine collapses and the dismemberment for a century or more. And in their heart of hearts, they know it causes acid rain and global warming. But they are scared. Nothing the government has done to try to improve the stateâs economy seems to have made much difference anywhere but in Lexington and Louisvilleânot the ARC or the rest of the War on Poverty, not any number of incentive packages and public private partnerships. Theyâre scared, for good reason, and they canât be rational when youâre talking about something that threatens to make them even more insecure.
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I agree Hoagie. Someone can.
But at this point, strategically, in KYâs political clime-- itâs just not going to be Grimes.
jw1
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You go girl. I hope that this poll is a real indication of the direction of the Kentucky voters. The country canât stand six more years of McConnell. Heâs done enough damage to the nation already.
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Run a successful âgreenâ campaign like you discussing in a coal state like Kentucky first, then come back to us.
Seriously, this is an excellent new poll. We want McConnell gone. That isnât going to happen by running a super progressive who drives around Kentucky in a bus using vegetable oil preaching the horrors of carbon gas emission.
Its fine and dandy to be a progressive in a deeply blue state. Its a bit more challenging to be liberal in a battleground state like KY or GA.
And if you think Grimes sounds like a Blue Dog, just wait until you hear Nunn speak.
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Brilliant post. Itâs so very spot on. No one knows the dangers of coal mining more than those in Eastern KY and yet the fear of losing even more jobs is greater than the risk.
Thanks to my grandparents for keeping it moving up 65. But for the grace of GodâŚ
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I think it can and will happen at some point, but we just arenât there yet. Nowhere near. Itâs going to take awhile and itâs going to have to happen incrementally. Grimes can probably get away with being fairly progressive on 9/10 issues, but just not on this one.
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Oh, true that. Iâm already stocking up on extra-strength âGod Give Me Strengthâ Patience Juice in anticipation of what sheâs going to be like.
Iâve been pleasantly surprised that none of the current rightmost Democrats, old and new, have infuriated me as much as Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson did. It seems like theyâve finally figured out that you canât get to a Republicanâs right, so for fuckâs sake stop trying. But Iâm fully prepared to be suppressing a lot of rage if Nunn wins.
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True enough-- and give Grimes a bit of breathing room: should she get into office, she may be in position to parlay her âoppositionâ into constructive alternatives that protect the workers or find cleaner uses for the coal. But she has to start with sticking up for the issues of her constituents.
Though I am ready to see coal-fired power plants go the way of whale oil.
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While I also would like Ms Grimes to be more nuanced.about her opposition to coal regulation, I can appreciate the reality she confronts that has been so clearly and eloquently cited here.
I ran into analogous concerns when Ms Gillibrand ran for the junior senator position here in New York. She found it necessary/prudent to adopt a much more conservative stance than I felt comfortable with, but has proved to be well worthy of the modest support I was able to proffer to her.
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Itâs worth adding that I have similar hopes for Ms Nunn, although I confess my reservations are stronger there, at least based upon what little I know of her campaign.
Magellan is part of the Kochtopus and has a track record for inaccuracy so grain of salt. The coal industry has collapsed in KY in the past 4 decades and few people still work in coal at this point, so the state-identity thing is more important at this point. Coal doesnât necessarily have the lobbying clout to make this happen legislatively and Grimes can say whatever she wants on this issue.
One nice advantage the Dems have going for them in red states is a nice good cop/bad cop routine with Obama.
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You know little of her campaignâs stances because she is keeping most of them a secret. She has come out being firmly in favor of her grandmother, however. Thatâs about as close as she has come to a policy position. Oh, she has also hinted that she thinks kittens are cute.
So, youâre saying sheâs a strong candidate.
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Exactly, Democrats in red states need to have a few things on which they can come out firmly against the president. In KY, coal is the perfect platform. Itâs a no-brainer. She could definitely do a double whammy by going after both McConnell and Obama for the bank bailouts. She could slam them both for doing more for Wall Street than Main Street. There are definitely some 1% arguments where she could go after both McConnell and the president.
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I think if you caress his stomach he will fall asleep.
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