GOP attack on Beshear through Poet Laureate Silas House reeks of desperation | Opinion
Silas House — one of the finest writers and spokesmen for Kentucky who’s ever lived — hardly needs any defense from me against the trolls of the Republican Governors’ Association. After all, he’s got Jason Isbell.
But this latest broadside on Twitter at Gov. Andy Beshear through House and his recent appointment as Kentucky Poet Laureate is instructive because it shows how thoroughly the GOP has lost the plot. (This is what you called a heavily ratioed tweet; the comments are hilarious.)
They can gerrymander all the districts they want, force through anti-LGBTQ legislation here and there, target trans kids. But the fact is that being gay, being happily married, being a passionate defender of liberalism in a conservative state, (and a passionate defender of a conservative state and its people) doesn’t work as a bogeyman anymore.
The demographics are against them. The youngs don’t care, and really, most olds don’t either. Silas House told bigots to “kiss his gay, country ass?” Most anyone would buy him a beer for that. People who don’t like Beshear have already made up their mind not to vote for him. And the RGA must be real worried there aren’t enough of them.
Like many of us, House has a complicated relationship with Kentucky, but his deep love for it is palpable in his work and in his tweets and everything he says.
Republicans have won over plenty of people with cultural scare tactics. But don’t go after one of Kentucky’s own. If the masterminds at the RGA didn’t live in Washington and New York, they’d know that.
In his speech at the Poet Laureate induction ceremony, House noted that he’s a proud product of the working class, whose grandfather lost a leg in the mines, and whose grandmother cooked alongside Colonel Sanders in what would become the first Kentucky Fried Chicken in Corbin. Like many, he lived in a trailer.
“While most of the world often told us we that were no good because of where we lived, my family taught me to always be proud of being country, being Appalachian, being Kentuckian. When you’re from a place or culture or way of being that is constantly belittled, negated or erased, you love it harder. The more people try to erase us, the more pride we have. The more they try to dull us, the brighter we shine.”
If anything, the RGA will inspire more folks to get out of the vote for Beshear. Here’s what Silas House said when I asked him for a comment.
“Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a proud Kentuckian. I love this place and its people, and I’m excited to be a poet laureate for all of Kentucky.”
That’s really all we need to know.
