Why Kentuckians and Other Impoverished States Vote Republican

As a former Kentuckian who loved Kentucky and many of its people, I remember being appalled at how the world treated the beloved people of the Bluegrass state after the re-election of Senator Mitch McConnell. It’s important to note here that I do not support McConnell in the slightest, but rather I’d like to illuminate why a majority of Kentuckians and other poor, generally white voters do vote for GOP candidates.

Let’s talk about the single biggest political motivator giving guaranteed control to the person wielding the power - fear. Kentucky is steeped in fear, so much so that their lives are dictated by it. Poverty levels in Kentucky are among the highest in the nation. Healthcare accessibility in Kentucky is among the poorest in the nation. Basic human needs are not being met. People are struggling to just survive in Kentucky, as they are in many parts of the almighty Land of the Free. Kentucky has been held back 30+ years in comparison to several other, more liberal parts of the nation. People are still fighting for their basic human rights, for their basic needs to be met all over the state. They don’t have access to healthcare, have little food security, and dismal community support programs. When you have a group of people who are deprived of having their basic human needs met, they’re easier to persuade and control. The individuals without access to meet their needs develop a “me against the world” mentality. This mentality often spreads through the largest voting demographic in the state, the GOP’s target demographic of poor whites. The GOP not only understands that this is happening, but actively choose not to act in favor of the people in order to secure a win through manipulation. The GOP uses divisive rhetoric to their advantage, pitting their target demographic against all others. Separation is control. Separation is, historically, how oppressors come into power.

Additionally, much of the state is deeply religious. Not only religious, but indoctrinated in their beliefs & in the questionable culture of the church. Unfortunately, this opens up the opportunity for deception from what could only be described as religious cults masquerading as churches, run by individuals or groups of individuals that have a biased agenda, conveniently disguised as God’s word. The message of God and the message of the church are frequently in deep opposition of one another at these houses of worship, but society has made it unacceptable to challenge these practices of blind faith and misguided morality. Many folks are simple, down to earth people who desire to worship & uphold the cultural norms of the church, but are hooked into the warped ideas of the administrators who misconstrue the word of God. Over time, people forget that God resides within, falling victim to peer pressure and judgements from their communities, forsaking themselves in order to submit to church doctrine. The GOP uses this current breakdown between church and the word of God to exploit the people in their times of spiritual upheaval and uncertainty.

In the end, many are convinced of the GOP agenda through the GOP’s exploitation of the carefully crafted, corrupt religious beliefs. The tactic of general fear-mongering enables people like Donald Trump & Mitch McConnell to convince voters that the GOP upholds tightly-held moral values which happen to align with the collective societal ramifications of a population’s ongoing crisis of unmet needs and rural religious values. Popular values mirroring a struggling population such as separation of church and state, white puritanical beliefs (steeped in unconscious racism), & the values of the blue-collar white man coincidentally dominate the region. The GOP has convinced poverty-stricken whites that the reason they’re struggling is not because of unmet needs and decades of poor republican leadership, but because of minority groups (less than 13% of the whole population) living on government assistance programs usurping money & resources, a statistically untrue and dangerously racist narrative which has been backed by the GOP for decades, in addition to the public’s lack of faith in the religious narrative which has been repeatedly bastardized for profit. The GOP has convinced poor white voters that minorities are trying to corrupt Puritan values, values that many only subscribe too due to the rampant, perpetuated scarcity mindset plaguing the area. They’ve further convinced poor whites that God would want a GOP leader in office through the abortion debate in order to reign in as many votes as they can, operating entirely through a position of fear-mongering. Divide and conquer.

Aside from the abortion debate, which is steeped in puritan fear-mongering for women (Would I go to hell for having an abortion? Would I be considered a bad person for having an abortion? Am I still a good mother to my other kids if I have an abortion?), the GOP also leverages the issue of firearms to its advantage. While it’s statistically proven that guns make our streets, homes, and schools more dangerous, the GOP outright lies and manipulates the people through fear regarding stricter gun regulation. In more rural parts of the nation, many people use firearms to hunt or firearms are otherwise used as a significant tool in their overall survival. Thus, rural populations (in Kentucky’s case, 24% of the state) object to gun control laws, which the GOP leverages against their opponents.

Above all, the GOP consistently re-iterates that if they weren’t in charge, the people of Kentucky would be destitute - that what little they do have now would be taken either through furthering poverty (‘people on social programs are usurping all the money’) or by force (‘they are coming to take your guns’ etc.) & people who have little security will do anything to hold onto what they have when the prevailing mentality is that there isn’t enough. McConnell in 2020 successfully painted his opponent, Amy McGrath, as a flip-flopper, with no moral decency or valuable experience, & her potentially being elected may detract from what little wealth the people may have accumulated. People who are struggling to survive don’t have any use for facts. They’re starved, quite literally. The people believe the status quo is better than potentially losing it all, because politicians like McConnell cling to the scarcity narrative and weaponize it against vulnerable Americans.

Deploying manipulation strategies and terror tactics is how McConnell wins. This is why much of the Midwest & South goes red. The issue is actually a much deeper & more complex argument than what I’ve presented in this writing, but this is the beginning of understanding. Criticism and scrutiny of the people of Kentucky and other poverty-stricken areas is only helping to pit the people who are struggling against the very individuals attempting to provide relief, perpetuating the narrative that those who differ are out to do them harm. These issues exist among many areas, but it’s especially clear that they are pervasive in areas of poverty. Kentuckians need unity and they need support in having basic needs met. This allows for community leaders to be born, to step into the face of adversity well-supported to begin facilitating healing throughout their fractured communities. To truly ensure progress, we need communities to unite. Dialogue can only begin when trust is somewhere on the horizon. Trust can only be facilitated when needs have been met; when people are no longer living out of the need to survive and they can make choices based not only on survival, but on what and who they truly believe in. Until then, people will continue to feel threatened and vote for whatever promotes the strongest sense of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self-preservation.

For the purpose of clarity, Republicans are not the only party using unsavory tactics on their voters. However, I do believe the overall narrative in the current GOP climate tends to be more harmful than the narratives of other political parties. To sew division amongst ourselves, even at the expense of democracy, is more than uncouth - it’s unconscionable. The unjust abuse of Americans through fear-based manipulation unequivocally contributes to the demise of our democracy and to the erosion of our freedom.

To be clear, I don’t believe our political climate was this divisive years ago. Nor do I believe the republican party as a whole to be evil, or more evil than that of any other party. An example of a Republican who believed in the values of the party but also placed the American people above the prosperity of the party was John McCain. There are still good people in the world with varying beliefs, fighting for a set of values who still center taking care of the collective whole above all else. Aside from the similarities or differences of our values, the end goal of the American collective is the same: to help our own.

Senators like Cruz, McConnell, Graham, and others, do not have the best interests of the American people at heart when they deploy manipulation, fear tactics, and a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy as a tool to win elections. When helping the American people is no longer the objective in being a servant of the people, that public servant is obligated to step down because America always deserves better.