KY AG Russell Coleman is dutifully keeping us safe from DEI by canceling Costco | Opinion
It’s been quite a week watching Trump try to take over Congress’ constitutional power of the purse by freezing all federal funding while he and his minions root out programs that feature “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green New Deal social engineering.”
“Daddy’s back,” and he’s “taking his belt off,” as noted kook Mel Gibson said, and we’re all running for cover from creepy metaphors and the end of checks and balances.
It’s like a flashback to Stalinism, with executive orders that try to deny trans people exist and create only “patriotic” lesson plans in our schools. Hey, if we actually get rid of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which appears all too likely, “patriotic education” can move forward without a whiff of our less savory history. Jim Crow? What Jim Crow?
Here in Kentucky, as folks worried if Meals on Wheels could be seen as a Marxist plot, Attorney General Russell Coleman joined the fray with a bold stand: Canceling Costco.
Yes, Kentucky’s chief law enforcement officer, has decided to join the Trump lickspittle brigade by deciding the biggest threat to our state is whether that person selling you a $1.50 hot dog got an unfair advantage because of DEI.
(Remember, every accusation is a confession. Only in Trumpworld could Lloyd Austin, a Black four-star general who served as Secretary of Defense, commander of United States Central Command, vice chief of staff of the Army, and commander of United States Forces in Iraq be a DEI hire, while Pete Hegseth, a buff, white former soldier with drinking and zipper problems is the meritocratic hire to run the Defense Department.)
It’s interesting because the GOP used to be the party of virtue, small government and private enterprise, but apparently, they now feel like it’s okay to interfere with a company like Costco ... because they can?
According to my Herald-Leader colleague Karla Ward: A group of attorneys general (including Coleman) decided to threaten Costco — drop your DEI or else.
Costco did not appear to be cowed.
“Our commitment to inclusion ... does not, and has never, included quotas or systematic preferences, nor does it mean compromising merit,” Costco board chairman Tony E. James said at the meeting, according to CBS News.
“The demands of our business and our steadfast commitment to serve our members mean that we cannot afford to do anything but hire and promote the most qualified individuals.”
Stand tall, Costco, at least for the next four years, while the small white men of the GOP stand by their neoConfederate philosophies.
▪ In other news this week, Auditor Allison Ball found some appalling new information about at least 49 foster children having to sleep in state offices because there aren’t enough homes to take them. This should be front and center for the Beshear administration to address.
It would also help if Coleman weren’t actively fighting federal rules to place LGBTQ+ foster youth “in supportive and affirming environments.” See, Kentucky uses a lot of private placement groups to find foster homes, but religious groups won’t place children with same-sex foster or adoptive parents.
Ah yes, keeping us safe. From children.
▪ Coleman also is making some national news. He came up in what the New York Times described as a “tense” conversation between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and six Democratic governors, including our own Andy Beshear.
According to the Times Thursday, Beshear said “Democratic governors whose states had Republican attorneys general needed a separate legal and communications strategy for combating Mr. Trump’s policies. He argued that Mr. Trump had appeared more focused on acquiring Greenland than on the price of eggs and said Democrats needed to focus not on what they see as the desecration of American democracy as much as how Mr. Trump was making life harder for people.”
So, not to worry. As bad as things get, Democrats seems to always find a way to ... talk about plans.
I’m no political strategist, but I think Beshear might have a point.
Seems like there might be a potent political message in pointing out to Kentuckians that Trump and Congress want to cut off your health insurance and close rural hospitals to pay for tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires now running our government.
But that might make too much sense in a world gone mad.
So, until next week, when, like Dorothy Parker, we can again ask, what fresh hell is this?
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 12:19 PM.
