Over the past months, weeks and days, the airwaves have been saturated with attack ads which have explained to Kentuckians the reasons to vote against a certain candidate for governor. These attack ads are a so-called litany of reasons not to vote for the other candidate on issues such as immigration, impeachment, public education, pensions, gambling, abortion, and yes, even work requirements to obtain Medicaid.
For the most part, the attack ads are paid for by outside groups attempting to buy influence from the candidate they believe will be the eventual winner of this year's governor's race. Think about it for a moment, yes, even before the votes are counted, even before the sun sets and the dust settles on this year's governor's race, these groups have already begun to position themselves in a long line with their hands out like greedy children in order to receive millions of taxpayer dollars for some unnecessary study, program, or a tax giveaway for a business which will never be built and jobs which will never be created.
Let's not kid ourselves, these groups are the very definition of carpetbaggers who are involved in Kentucky’s election not for the good of any Kentuckian, but rather, these carpetbaggers are only involved in Kentucky politics to exploit Kentuckians. The only interest these groups have is to enrich themselves and line their pockets with our tax dollars if their choice for governor is reelected. Consider for a moment a few lines in Harold Robbins book “The Carpetbaggers,” where he wrote, “Every man has his price. For some it's money, for some it's women, for others glory. But the honest man you don't have to buy - he winds up costing you nothing.”
The rhetorical question all Kentuckians need to ask themselves before casting their votes is why should anyone really care about this steady stream of carpetbaggers involved in buying and influencing the outcome of our election? Well, one reason we should care is because at the end of the day, Kentucky’s tax dollars which will be wasted to pay back these groups are tax dollars which belong to Kentuckians, not corrupt and greedy politicians. Those tax dollars are not part of a slush fund which should be used to enrich those who have literally attempted the buy the election.
Remember, at the end of the day, many of the policies supported by these outside groups will change the face of Kentucky not just next year, but for years and decades into the future. For the most part these policies will be crafted by outsiders, or rather carpetbaggers with only one interest and that is how much money they can stuff in their greedy pockets as payoffs for funding the attack ads, attack ads intended to buy this election.
Although it would be impossible to respond to all of the attack ads, the single attack ad which should concern all Kentuckians is the attack ad about work requirements to receive Medicaid. The proponents of the work requirements attempt to sell the program as a way lift people up. Yet, for anyone who understands not only rural Kentucky, but all poor Kentuckians, the work requirements are nothing more than a thinly disguised attempt to remove these needy people from the Medicaid roles.
The proposed Medicaid work requirements completely ignore the reality that many Medicaid recipients simply do not have enough money to put food on the table, let alone money for gas to drive to the non-existent jobs necessary to qualify for Medicaid under the proposed work requirement rules. Oh well, why should anyone in Frankfort care about Kentucky's poor, as long as there are millions of dollars left over in government coffers to funnel these millions of dollars to the managed care organizations, organizations which will be paid not to manage necessary healthcare, but organizations paid to kick people off the Medicaid roles.
As you consider this single attack ad, take a moment to ask yourself how someone who proclaims to be pro-life, could be so callous when it comes to Kentucky's needy. Think about it for a moment, pro-life, yet anti-healthcare. Maybe those who have been sponsoring these attack ads should take a moment and travel to some of Kentucky's rural and poor communities and meet with those who will be kicked off Medicaid if these work rules are adopted in Kentucky. Of course, we shouldn’t hold our breath that that will happen, for the most part these carpetbaggers operate with the old adage “out of sight, out of mind.”
In the end, don’t be fooled, the attack ads are nothing more than a desperate politician trying to redefine himself at the eleventh hour by wrapping himself in a pro-life flag, while at the same time waiting to take off his pro-life flag and wrap himself in his anti-healthcare flag which is hanging in his closet, the flag which he will wear to his inauguration if reelected. Oh, and just in case you were wondering what else is hanging in his closet full of flags is his anti-public education, anti-public pensions flags, and any other flag which his carpetbagger supporters and donors ask him to wear.
So, as I often do, I would invite each of you to join me on my imaginary mountaintop, a place where all Kentuckians can look down at the carpetbaggers and shout loudly that Kentucky is not for sale, Kentucky and Kentucky’s future belongs to Kentuckians, not carpetbaggers; shout loudly that you can’t be pro-life and anti-healthcare at the same time; and finally, shout loudly the words of Abraham Lincoln when he said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
