|
Yesterday at the Paducah Quilt Museum, I had the honor of attending a campaign announcement by Matt Bevin, candidate for U.S. Senate, and to get a bet
|
|
Yesterday at the Paducah Quilt Museum, I had the honor of attending a campaign announcement by Matt Bevin, candidate for U.S. Senate, and to get a better idea of the man behind the Tea Party's challenge to Mitch McConnell.
My first impression of Matt was, "dang, he has 9 kids? How does his wife EVER finish the laundry?" |
Turns out, the 46 year old and his beautiful wife have five children by birth, and four adopted children. The couple seemed genuinely grateful to able to provide for so many children, although my impression about the laundry is probably not very far from the mark.
But after hearing him speak, seeing his down-to-earth manner and hearing some of his positions on the issues, I truly believe that Matt Bevin has everything he needs to defeat Mitch, including professional, marketable campaign supplies, and the cutest campaign swag I've ever seen.
Here are some of the issues that candidate Bevin brought up yesterday: |
Humble foreign policy: Yep, you read that right. When questioned about the retired Congressman from Texas, Matt Bevin stated that his closest similarity to Ron Paul was his foreign policy. He felt we didn't need to send money to people who hate us, and that we shouldn't be policing the world. Sounds like the complete opposite of his opponent, who by the way scored a miserable 61% on the Freedom Index.
Audit the FED: When asked about his similarity to Ron Paul's positions on the economy, he told us that he wasn't quite ready to shut the doors on the Federal Reserve, but that he wants a full audit of the criminal FED, the covers pulled back and all the slime exposed. (My own adjectives added)
Term limits and no Congressional pay raises: While term limits aren't the most pressing issue in D.C. politics, Bevin's support of term limits is a shining example of his desire to be at home with his family, rather than spending the rest of his life in D.C. (As a side note, our Congressman Ed Whitfield also supported term limits during his campaign, although he has now been in office almost 20 years. Mitch has been in office nearly 30 years, almost longer than I've been alive.)
Matt declared specifically and unquestionably that he would never EVER vote to give himself a raise. This is something McConnell has done countless times during his three decades as a U.S. Senator. (By doing a quick Google search I learned that 52% of the world's population and 38% of the United States population are under 30. Mitch has been in office longer than 52% of humans have been alive. I think it's time to retire already.) |
The general feeling of the entire speech was one of smaller government, support of business and small business owners, lower taxes, and less invasion into our private lives (ie. NSA spying and the Patriot Act-both of which candidate Bevin is strongly against.) There are several issues about which I am anxious to speak with Matt, including industrial hemp. I have yet to ask him about his views on property rights with regards to eminent domain, guns, raw milk, smoking, midwifery, and medicine. Still, I have a feeling that Matt will be on the right side of all of those issues. I'll be sure to let you know if I learn anything to the contrary. But when you believe in the Philosophy of Liberty and property rights, you always come down on the right side of the issue. |
To wrap up this long post, I'll mention a few of the reasons I think McConnell is going to lose this primary.
▪ McConnell has done nothing but attack, even going after people who didn't declare candidacy. People don't take kindly to mudslinging. It goes against our nature to attack people based on things like depression and business disasters, something many Kentuckians have dealt with personally. Most of Mitch's attacks stem from the fact that he doesn't actually have a good record to run on. He has to point fingers at others to distract attention from his own spotty past, including massive bankster bailouts, and NAFTA (the #1 reason everything at Wal-Mart is made in China.)
▪ Matt Bevin has access to the two major necessities in a successful campaign, fundraising and Grassroots, although the extent of which is unknown to me. You can't have one or the other in Kentucky politics, you must have both. We learned that bit of truth with the last Governor's race, where Phil Moffett, adored by the people but lacking the proper funding, lost a race to the GOP hand-picked David Williams, who had more than enough money to run a statewide race. However, when David Williams headed into the General election, he did so with cash on hand, but very little public support. No sign waves, rallies, or excitement were anywhere to be found during the Williams/Farmer campaign. Senator Rand Paul had both, and won in a landslide victory. So did James Comer and Thomas Massie, with respect to their races. Matt has the "electability" and, so far, the platform, to win the hearts and minds of Kentucky voters, while supporting the grassroots with a proper war chest.
▪ Early polling done prior to the Bevin campaign announcement shows that 39.1% of KY voters polled would definitely vote for someone other than Mitch, and 20.3 would consider voting against Mitch. The most striking figure was the question about the primary election, a straight up choice between Mitch, Matt, and "not sure." Matt Bevin actually scored a whopping 19.9%, even though relatively few people had ever heard of him before Wednesday. See the poll results in their entirety here.
▪ Matt Bevin is a family man with a good work ethic and strong moral convictions.
▪ Mitch McConnell is already running scared, using sophomoric tactics, and highly obnoxious "stalkers" to follow Matt around and film every movement. While I was in Paducah, I witnessed one of Mitch's stalkers holding his phone camera mere inches over Matt's shoulder as he walked out of the doors of the museum with his entire family. The creepy stalker wasn't filming any interviews, or trying to catch Matt saying something embarrassing, he was literally hovering over Matt and his wife and children like some sort of demented vulture, laughing at his own cleverness. So it goes when you throw in your lot with the corrupt. Trey Grayson used the same obnoxious tactics against Rand. I asked him if he was planning on following Matt all day, or just in Paducah, and he seemed proud to admit he would be following him all day long.
|
Although I have yet to ask Matt about several key issues, so far I can tell you I am 99% sure that I will be supporting his candidacy. I look forward to learning more about him, and I hope my friends across Kentucky will do the same.
From Matt's campaign announcement Wednesday:
"Never in the history of American politics, has a Party leader been defeated in a primary....but never has it been more important to make that happen.
The time to make history is right now, and the place to make history is right here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
-Matt Bevin
So who else is ready to make history? Matt will be invited to Fancy Farm, a decision that was made Wednesday when Matt announced his candidacy. Fancy Farm is the big kick-off for Kentucky political campaigns, so I hope that you all will join me at Fancy Farm, KY next Saturday, August 3rd to continue learning more about Matt Bevin.
For more information about him, please click the banner below to visit the issues page on the official campaign site. |
  |
|
|
|
