On this date in 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, who while a challenger to Mitch McConnell’s U.S. Senate seat back in 2014, came out in support of Personhood legislation to give zygotes the same rights as fully born adult citizens, and who attended a rally in support of cockfighting (and then unsuccessfully tried lying about it when the media reported on it). Matt Bevin then won the 2015 GOP Primary in the governor’s race in Kentucky by a whopping 83 votes, and went on to top the Democrat in the field even though he had spoken about the Medicaid Expansion in Kentucky, and expressed his desire to reverse the decision, which would take away healthcare from hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky. Much like his previous gaffe with going to a dogfighting rally, Bevin tried denying he ever made remarks about stripping healthcare from so many… even though he was caught on tape doing so. Bevin was elected even though he professed in October that he wanted to execute the failed policy several states implemented of drug testing welfare recipients. Since taking office, Bevin immediately started using the power of his office to reverse any progress done by outgoing Governor Steve Breshear over the past couple years, including the reversal an executive order made by Breshear to restore the voting rights of some who had them taken away permanently for felony convictions, or doing whatever he could to help out bigoted county clerks like Kim Davis who were losing their minds about having to do their jobs and sign off on same sex marriages by changing the way marriage licenses are written so that the clerk’s name not only doesn’t need to be signed, but doesn’t appear at all on the document. In September of 2016 at the Voter Values Summit, Matt Bevin lost his goddamned mind when he was asked if the country could “survive a Clinton presidency”, and began rambling about revolution, saying, “The roots of the tree of liberty are watered by what?. The blood, of who? The tyrants to be sure, but who else? The patriots. Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren.” When asked for clarification about his remarks, he became even more paranoid, adding, “Today we have thousands of men and women in uniform fighting for us overseas and they need our full backing. We cannot be complacent about the determination of radical Islamic extremists to destroy our freedoms.” But a month later, Matt Bevin was urging preachers and clergy to ignore whatever warnings they might have received about politicking (which can jeopardize their tax-exempt status), and help the GOP campaign to win offices, and calling the existing law a “paper tiger”. Outside of rhetoric, we’re not fans of Gov. Bevin on policy, either, as he has spent the early part of 2017 trying to get “right to work” legislation passed in Kentucky, and do whatever he can within his power to harm workers’ unions in his state.
We will thus begin our recap of the past year of the adventures of the maniacal Gov. Matt Bevin:
- January 25th, 2017: Bevin impotently releases a Facebook live video where he trashes the name of his state Attorney General, Andy Breshear, because Breshear revealed that he wouldn’t challenge a lawsuit against HB 2, an anti-abortion law Bevin signed even though it was patently unconstitutional based on all precedent. This would, of course, save the state from not just the cost of losing that lawsuit, but the time and effort involved. During his rant, Bevin called Breshear “dishonorable” and called out a newspaper from the Courier Journal of Louisville and calling her reporting “lies”.
- March 20th, 2017: Gov. Bevin signs SB 17 into law, a “religious freedom” law that allows public school students to express religious and political views in homework and class projects “free from discrimination or penalty,” distribute political and religious literature, and wear religious items and symbols. Where it completely goes off the rails, is the law would allow for student organizations to openly discriminate against LGBTQ students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In other words, it’s a violation of the separation of church and state, and just flat out discrimination, so cue the lawsuits that the state will inevitably lose.
- March 30th, 2017: Matt Bevin’s administration, from the start, began filing lawsuits against every abortion clinic in Kentucky, and nearly did so to the extent that they nearly closed the last one in the state. The move was blocked, however, by a judge’s ruling.
- May 23rd, 2017: Bevin refers to the local press as “cicadas” in a Facebook Live broadcast in an attack on his local press. Within a week, this led an apparent Bevin supporter to shoot out the windows of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
- August 16th, 2017: After a Neo-Nazi drove his vehicle into counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, injuring a score of people and killing Heather Heyer, Matt Bevin echoed the remarks of Donald Trump, claiming that “both sides” were to blame.
- October 12th, 2017: Governor Bevin is not smart. The latest proof? On this date, he stated his desire to never legalize marijuana usage in Kentucky because of “people overdosing based on ingestion of products that are edibles and things,” adding “law enforcement people in emergency rooms being overrun by problems.” (HINT: There are not marijuana overdoses happening, from edibles or otherwise.)
- January 16th, 2018: Matt Bevin threatens to take away Medicaid funding from half a million people in Kentucky “if they don’t work for it”. A reminder, though… most people on Medicaid are the elderly or the disabled, who can’t necessarily perform physical work.
And thus, we continue to hold out hope that people in Kentucky will not suffer too much between now and 2019, when Matt Bevin’s term is up. Because it looks pretty dark at the moment.