BIDEN To Appear With MITCH McConnell In Kentucky To Celebrate Infrastructure, Bipartisanship $$$

“When did Mitch, a Southern Soul, support policies that helped Americans? So why do Southerners re-elect him?”

Kentucky was never a die hard Confederate state. In 1861 the elected state government was pro Union. A self constituted group of southern sympathizers set up a shadow government which was recognized by the Confederacy. Kentucky was the 13th and last state to join the Confederacy (Dec 10, 1861) and it was the unelected, one might say illegitimate, state government that joined the Confederacy. The legitimately elected unionist government continued to operate in the areas of the state not occupied by Confederate forces. In the first two years of the Civil War (1861-62) Confederate forces controlled at most half the state and the rest of the state was administered by the pro union elected government. By the March 1862 the Confederate government of Kentucky had left the state and was effectively a government in exile for the rest of the war, traveling with the Confederate army of Tennessee.

In the 1800’s Kentucky’s economy was highly dependent on the Ohio River which forms its northern border. While state law permitted slavery, Kentucky had strong economic ties to Illinois and Ohio. The state had much to loose by going to war which explains its pro union state government. Many of the southern sympathizers preferred Kentucky to mediate an agreement between the northern and southern states. They promoted neutrality for the state instead of joining either side. Note that in June 1861, after Fort Sumter, there was a congressional election in Kentucky and in the statewide election the unionist candidates won 9 of the 10 seats. Clearly the citizens of Kentucky, given a choice, voted against joining the Confederacy. Once the Confederate army left the state in 1862, there was no uprising against the elected unionist government. In essence, Kentucky was in reality a Union state by the middle of 1862.

Kentucky, like Maryland and Delaware, is much more of a midwestern border state than a “southern” state with respect to its history, politics and culture. As a result, I would not characterize Mitch McConnell as a “soul of the south”. He comes from a midwestern state which is a blend of north and south.

Looking at Mitch’s history, even though he may pose as a gentlemanly southern conservative, his behavior demonstrates he is not an ideologue. He is a political operator and his constituency is the national big money donor base for the Republican Party, not the average citizen of Kentucky. Culturally he is not a “southerner” he is a modern globalist with a foreign wife, who travels in the circles of the upper 1% of the elites who control the world’s economy and political structures. He, like many Republican senators who have no core ideological beliefs, has mastered the art of presenting a facade to the masses he relies on in election years, while always serving first the interests of the donor class.

I suspect few conservative Kentucky voters support Mitch because he is a “soul of the south”. Like many voters across the country at election time there is only a choice between a leftist big government Democrat and a pragmatic politician with no ideology running as a Republican. Small government, liberty loving, conservatives cast a vote for the lesser of two evils, know the Republican will serve primarily the interest of donors and frequently compromise on key issues of importance to conservatives. Mitch benefits from this reflexive behavior of Republican voters who given a choice between moderate socialism, administered by Republicans, and one party state communism administered by Democrats, choose the less painful option.

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