Dem
47
GOP
53
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) wrote an op-ed that was published in yesterday's edition of The Washington Post. Here's the concluding, and most important, portion:
When I first ran for governor in 2019, I narrowly won Henderson County. Since then, we've opened the cleanest, greenest recycled paper mill there, with 320 jobs that start at almost $40 an hour including benefits. This mill is in a former coal town that, like too many places in my state, had felt forgotten.
That paper mill resurrected the American Dream for 320 families. And in 2023, I won Henderson County by double digits.
That's part of what Democrats can do to win in the areas that have been slipping away. Another is to start talking like normal human beings again. We're not going to win the messaging battle if we say that Trump's policies make people "food insecure." No, they make people hungry. Kentucky was hit hard by the opioid epidemic. I didn't lose a friends and acquaintances to "substance use disorder"; I lost them to addiction. Addiction is hard, it's mean, and it kills people. So when people triumph over it, we should give them the credit they deserve by calling it what it is.
Finally, we have to start communicating our "why." For me, it's my faith. I vetoed the nastiest piece of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the country knowing full well that the Republicans in the Kentucky legislature passed it to use in an election year. But tens of millions of dollars of misleading attack ads against me didn't work. Why? Because I gave Kentuckians the respect of explaining my veto—that I believe all children are children of God and that I didn't think the legislature should be picking on vulnerable kids.
Democrats are good at explaining our "what." Let's get good at explaining our "why."
That's how we will win back the American people. We have to do the hard work of convincing American families that Democrats are the party committed to addressing their day-to-day concerns, that we believe in a brighter future for their children and that we will always give them straight talk. That we will do, in other words, what Donald Trump and the Republicans have shown they will not.
The explainer text tells readers that Beshear felt the need to write this op-ed because he's about to commence his term as leader of the Democratic Governors Association.
Uh, huh. Undoubtedly, the American people were clamoring for a breakdown of the Governor's vision for leadership of an organization that most of them have never even heard of. So, allow us to properly translate what Beshear is really saying here. To make things a little more interesting, we present 10 different translations; readers can decide which one they like the best:
1. Magistratum praesidis anno MMXXVIII petam.
2. Iyay amyay unningray orfay esidentpray inyay 2028.
3. tera' DIS 2028 che'wI' vIgheSlI'
4. .. / .- -- / .-. ..- -. -. .. -. --. / ..-. --- .-. / .--. .-. . ... .. -.. . -. - / .. -. / ..--- ----- ..--- ---..
5.
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We checked the Latin with a professor of history who is fluent in the language, so it is not necessary to e-mail us with grammar corrections.
We continue to think that Democratic voters are going to be very conservative in their choice of candidates in 2028, and are not going to choose anyone who might further drive away non-college white male voters. Four of the last five Democrats to win presidential elections were personable white guys, three of those four were also Southerners, and two of those three (aka, 40% of the Democrats who have won presidential elections in the last 60 years) were Southern governors. A personable, white Southern governor is going to sound awfully good to a lot of Democratic primary voters, particularly the ones who vote in South Carolina, and the ones who vote on all-important Super Tuesday.
Meanwhile, judging by his verbiage, both in the part of the op-ed we excerpted, and in the part we didn't, Beshear is talking about the kinds of things Democrats are supposed to be talking about, and in the way they are supposed to be talking about them. And notice that he manages to do it while pointedly NOT throwing LGBTQ people under the bus.
Of course, the road to the White House is lined with the corpses of candidates who looked really good on paper, but who wilted once they were under the big, bright spotlight. Ted Kennedy. Rudy Giuliani. Gary Hart. Jeb! Will Beshear be one of those? Clearly, we are going to find out. (Z)