A truism in columnizing was always if you have an opportunity to quote Mark Twain, do it. These days it has to come with a trigger warning and disclaimer.
For the woke amongst you, this column includes a Mark Twain quote, even though he is a long dead man from the nineteenth century who wrote in the language of his time. I accept that I'll probably be cancelled for this.
For the rest of you, here's the quote:
“When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else.”
The occasion for the Twaining is the recent news that the state of Kentucky, for the first time, has more registered Republicans than Democrats. Considering how we're surrounded by Republican dominated states, the obvious response is what took them so long?
Unfortunately, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, didn't offer a reason Kentucky seemed to be twenty years behind everyone else. Perhaps it was simply self-evident to him, like so many other truths.
He just made an observation that stuck. And if the Republicans have their way (like anyone is going to stop them at this point), the state will be a century behind. That won't be behind enough for some.
There was a lot of celebration amongst the uber-rich and uber-confused that make up the state GOP. Mac Brown, scion of the family behind Brown-Forman and state party chair, was ecstatic.
“This did not happen overnight, and we didn’t do it alone,” Brown said. “This day has been decades in the making and is only made possible by the hard work and effort put in by so many.”
Of course, most of the 'so many' he refers to were elected Democrats. I used to say the Democratic party in Kentucky has produced more Republicans than the Republican party ever dreamed of. But since Trump came along to fire up the uber-confused and deplorables, I don't say it as much.
In truth, the Republicans had won the game well before Trump reared his orange head. He just cemented the inevitable.
Now the state's registrations look like the way the state has been voting for the last--here's Twain's number again--twenty years. With the unholy marriage of the pulpit and the politician that dominates the state's Republican party, it may be illegal to even register Democratic in this state before long.
Closed primaries and gerrymandered congressional districts tend to keep the dominant party dominant, so there'll be no shift soon in the political winds in the state. This is no place to be an independent even though independent voters are what we need more than anything.
The only way to solve the problems in this state, as in this country, is to kneecap both parties and embrace an independent middle.
The irony of the Twain observation is the powers that be want to keep Kentucky far behind everyone else EXCEPT when it comes to the end of the world. From the way they talk, that's something they want to be first in line for.