Maybe sunny idealism is the ticket?
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear had plenty to say about the culture wars that have divided his party as he laid groundwork here this week for a possible 2028 presidential run.
As some prominent Democrats warn that the party has gone too far left on trans rights, the governor from the deep-red South quoted scripture to explain why he vetoed “every single piece of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation” that GOP state lawmakers sent to his desk. As some institutions back off racial justice initiatives that have faced a fierce backlash and that Republicans call “woke,” Beshear said he was proud to make Juneteenth an executive branch holiday and remove a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis from the Kentucky Capitol.
“I’m a proud pro-choice governor, I’m a proud pro-LGBTQ+ governor, and I’m a proud pro-diversity governor,” Beshear said at his final stop, a dinner for Democrats in conservative Georgetown County. “Now some people would tell you that a Democrat can’t win in a state like mine or yours with that resume. Yet here I am.”
Beshear occupies a singular position in the early 2028 Democratic sweepstakes as a two-term governor in a state President Donald Trump won by 30 points who is pitching himself as a blueprint for the party to start winning again. As Democrats fight over whether they paid a price for moving too far left on some social issues, Beshear is using his red-state experience to argue the party need not run away from those topics
Democrats can win voters who disagree with them on those polarizing issues, Beshear argued, if they do a better job of explaining their reasoning and focus most of their energy on basic needs such as jobs, infrastructure and health care. Over two days of packed receptions and private meetings in South Carolina, he urged Democrats totalk “like normal human beings,” cut down on activist-driven jargon and show voters they are focused on bread-and-butter issues.
“Folks, this isn’t an either-or,” Beshear told a crowded reception at a Charleston law office on Thursday. “We can stick up for everything we believe in while still convincing the American people that we are going to spend every single day working on those things that lift everybody up.”
That pitch was part of a broader upbeat message that Beshear took around the state as Democrats reel from Trump’s second term, soul-search about their losses last fall and debate what they need to do differently. He pointed to his 5-point reelection victory in ruby-red Kentucky two years ago as evidence that Democrats could “win everywhere” with good governance and a determination to be “the party of common sense, common ground and getting things done.”
I just struck me as I was reading this that he is selling the same sort of unapologetic, optimistic positive message in rural America that Zohran Mamdani is selling in urban America. It does sound very fresh after all the darkness of the Trump era.
This guy too:
I can believe that people are thirsting for a little bit of positivity right now. Something to think about.
On the other hand, I am not up for another round of “let’s not look in the rearview mirror, we need to move forward not backwards” bs that lets the criminals off the hook. That’s what got us to where we are today.
We don’t need vengeance. But unless there is accountability for what they’ve done, we are lost.