Summary
Following disappointing national election results, Andy Beshear, a Democratic governor re-elected in a heavily Trump-supporting state, urges the Democratic Party to focus on core issues affecting Americans’ daily lives rather than political infighting.
He highlights his own success through tangible achievements like Medicaid expansion, improved healthcare access, and infrastructure projects, which built trust by addressing residents’ practical needs.
Emphasizing job creation, affordable healthcare, and public safety, he argues that genuine, results-driven engagement on these nonpartisan issues can restore trust and unity across political divides.
Ahh the New York Times, never missing an opportunity to throw trans folks under the bus.
Gov. Beshear talks a big game about vetoing anti-LGBTQ legislation, but the article they even link to about it points out (in the headline no less) that every one of those vetoes were overruled (and that doing so is trivial in Kentucky). He is describing a pantomime of concern for the queer community, wrapped in dog-whistle language (“all children are children of God”), while functionally doing as little as possible to actually help them.
This is a lesson for despondent Democrats in how they can softly give up on protecting a persecuted community to get what they want.
As a trans person, I agree the Democratic party’s messaging on trans issues has been lackluster and easy to counter.
The kids sports talking point was so effective because is brought up a good point that blanket trans acceptance hadn’t considered. Testosterone is literally a performance enhancing drug, so maybe going through male puberty makes someone ineligible to compete on a women’s team. That sucks, but in the same way that it sucks that other medical conditions would also keep you off the team. Being trans is not a disability, but the disqualification can be a point of disappointment as opposed to actual injustice.
I’m a late-transitioning trans lady, and I’m willing to concede that. These are the kinds of discussions that I’ve had with conservative family members that are very compelling, but they get bulldozed by broad, non-nuanced talking points that the media slaps against one another.
I’m also not a politician or an expert communicator. It is so frustrating that the people I literally rely on to do those jobs for my benefit are doing this so poorly.
I can’t claim to know what all this feels like to trans people, but Andy Beshear is not your enemy.
I say as an atheist - if all religious people shared Andy Beshear’s flavor of god delusion, the world would be a better place.
The whole “trans women in sports” thing is one of those talking points that technically has some validity, but is used in bad faith as a wedge by bigots to try to enact far reaching bans on all trans people in all spaces. Trying to talk to people who bring that up is exasperating because if you give them that inch, they’ll take a mile, instead of acknowledging how puberty blockers and long-term HRT level the playing field, or trans men.
