Any candidate, whether it’s Bevin (more likely at this point) or McConnel (less likely this point) sometimes, at some point in a campaign, needs to decide (a) if the guy they are running against in their primary is really worse than the guy they would meet in the general election - if they were not in the race, which one would THEY vote for, as well as (b) is their compaign against their opponent in the primary doing greatly less benefit to them than damage it might be doing to their opponent in the primary whom they are trailing; who is getting the most benefit out of their campaign against their opponent in the primary, themself, or the guy they’d maybe face in the general election.
forgive me if I sound like I’m FAVORING McConnel; I’m not, specifically, but I am favoring a GOP win for that seat.
This may be a race where the stuff that goes on in Washington D.C. is less important than the adage that “all politics are local”, and for all those “unprincipled” local parochial reasons and interests, Bevin has not found the message - to that voting constituency - that resonates well enough; and he won’t, unless he can translate his contrast with McConnel in terms of the Washington D.C. scene into local meaning for the voters.
What you say would be wonderful in a pure world but the thing you are missing is that McConnell is a democrat; you just don’t know it.
McConnell is a big government ruling class democrat surrogate who has infiltrated the republican party because he knows how to play the voters for suckers. If you are not convinced of that with the latest but typical antic of his debt ceiling vote, then nothing will convince you.
Voting for McConnell is worse than anything because he will occupy our party and vote with democrats or enable them to pass what they want. And voters like you won’t know what to do because you have no party to represent you; McConnell has taken your party and twisted it to his own ends. He will never be a republican in spirit anymore than Bloomberg was before he went independent.
You have to understand that Senate seats are for sale to the highest bidder and the ruling class has allowed McConnell and his backers to buy the seat with an ‘R’ because KY voters think they want a republican. If KY voters were more democrat you would see a similar character to McConnell buying the seat with a ‘D’. That’s the reality. You have no representation with McConnell so if you vote for him you might as well hang a sign on yourself that says “useful idiot”.
I know it is first order logic to want your team to win but when someone tells you that your team players have been bought off to lose and they offer solid evidence over and over again, you have to come to a point eventually where you think “this sucks”. But if we keep buying tickets for that team and cheering them on knowing they are going to throw the game, what does that make us? It makes us fools.
It’s like having cancer, you have a choice, you can die from it or you can die later from it. What you have to do is to realize there isn’t a choice given what’s handed you.
Most people in your situation are going to not vote unless they warm to Bevin. And Bevin needs to get that warming into high gear. Kentuckians should thank God they have someone that is republican in philosophy and who is spending his own money to make a difference.
And guess what? Two months ago Bevin trounced McConnell in a straw poll in an important county of KY. So what does that make this reported poll? I smell propaganda. I see how the ruling class tactics of programming our minds to think one way and not another is in full force. This is what money buys, a PR and media campaign to program us to a false reality.
Go to a barbershop in KY and listen to what the barbers are saying and what they say customers are saying. Then be one who speaks for Bevin.
The campaign waged against McConnell has been extraordinarily incompetent. Bevin’s first ad straight of the gate was one with him personally attacking McConnell - not a positive biographical sketch, and you never, ever personally appear in an ad attacking your opponent - that all blows back on you - and of course, prompted McConnell to immediately respond with a barrage of counter attacks which overwhelmed Bevin as McConnell had a ton more cash on hand. So, Bevin squandered his opportunity at a positive first impression - and you only get that chance one time. That’s a very bad start. Multiple ads have been run against McConnell as purely attack ads from conservative groups - none to positively portray Bevin - and they have run with ads from the left also attacking McConnell. This strategy doesn’t help Bevin because still relatively few know who he is - is just ups McConnell’s negatives with the voting public at large all the more. Bevin therefore is going nowhere at all in his effort to defeat McConnell in the primary. There are also more candidates on the ballot against McConnell than Bevin, so just getting people to vote against McConnell doesn’t assist Bevin in the least as that splits the vote between multiple other choices. Moreover, even if Bevin somehow does manage to beat McConnell, he has not been defined in a positive light to have a head start against Grimes and allow Grimes to define him first. This is a losing strategy all around.