On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, as well as 2023, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of Brandon Smith, a Kentucky State Senator who has distinguished himself by being such a fan of the coal lobby (having worked for them once himself) that he has introduced legislation that attempted to nullify federal environmental laws like the Clean Water Act. Perhaps we shouldn't trust Smith with his opinions on the environment, because he is also a climate change denier who once argued against the phenomenon in the Kentucky legislature because, as he put it, "We all agree the temperature on Mars is the same as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars." As it turned out, anyone with a lick of sense would dispute that, because it's ridiculous. How could Smith have said something so completely stupid?
Well, not for nothing, but he does apparently have a drinking problem, as he was arrested for DUI in January of 2015 (conveniently right after his last election to a four year term). And after initially trying to get his DUI charge thrown out because of an 1891 Kentucky statute that said members of the General Assembly are "privileged from arrest" during a legislative session (because you'll always seem sympathetic when you try and convince the public you're above the law), Smith was eventually found not guilty on the technicality that he refused to submit to a breathalyzer. He’s still voting like he’s drunk, though, with votes for bills to try and require women get a medically unnecessary ultrasound prior to getting an abortion, a TRAP law to close all the abortion clinics in his state (unconstitutionally), as well as one of those transphobic bathroom bills.
Brandon Smith has continued to implausibly remain in office, in spite of his arrest record, and the sheer audacity he has to pretend he’s above the law. Also, in 2018, he voted to cut the cost of living increases for teachers by 33%. He then immediately tried to usurp the title of Majority Floor Leader of the Kentucky State Senate from colleague Damon Thayer. At least he failed, but still, take note that this wanker his some high ambitions.
In the past several years, Brandon Smith has been on a hypocritical anti-choice tirade. He voted for both a fetal heartbeat bill that would effectively ban abortion in Kentucky at 6 weeks (before many women even realize they’re pregnant), a bill to require doctors to attempt “life-saving measures” and to attempt to resuscitate an aborted fetus (even though by definition, any fetus that is aborted cannot survive outside the womb). and a bill to create regulations for “abortions that result in premature birth” (which don’t exist). The hypocrisy about his “pro-life” agenda comes when you realize that Smith no-showed a vote to guarantee employment protections for pregnant women, so they can’t get fired for having a baby in the first place. The same pregnancies he’s refusing to allow women to be able to terminate if they choose.
These sorts of logical failings, like still trying to pass anti-democratic restrictions on what it takes to register to vote and to limit the Governor of his state’s time limit on maintaining a public health emergency, that tend to convince us that Brandon Smith might still be drinking.
Brandon Smith won re-election in 2022 with 76% of the vote, meaning he can go on to help his party to pass bigoted legislation aimed at harassing trans youth, or whatever attempts to legalize hatred that pass for conservative policy ideas these days.