One Way to Beat Mitch McConnell in 2020

Here's one possible route to beating Mitch McConnell. I think it may work politically but in any case it presents the truth about Kentucky.

First, McConnell's opponent makes the case that she isn't a racist. This is said casually, sort of a nod to the normal tropes of modern politics. And then she says this.

"I'm not a racist which is why I know that Kentucky is the victim of terrible leadership. It's true that we have only half as many minorities as the average state in this country but that should not account for why we're poorer. Whether measured by median or average, our household income is 20% lower than the rest of the nation. And we have only half as many households that make over $200,000 a year.

"This isn't because the good people of Kentucky are any less as people. Birth doesn't explain this difference. It's not bad genetics but bad leadership that explains why Kentucky is poor. It's because the systems our leaders have developed are inferior. Our education systems. Our health systems. The systems we depend on for creating new businesses and with it new jobs and wealth. All of these are inferior here in Kentucky and that's because leaders like Mitch McConnell have done such a terrible job of nurturing and advancing these systems and the culture that embraces rather than rejects the disruption that comes from new ideas and businesses.

"What we need is a very different set of expectations. Mitch McConnell has kept Kentucky in the past because the ideas he has are anchored in the past. It's time to send someone to DC more intent on making the good people of Kentucky prosperous than he is on fighting to protect that past."

And from then you hammer the point that his terrible leadership is what has caused Kentucky to be 20% poorer than the rest of the nation rather than 25% richer, like Massachusetts (a place which has twice the percentage of minorities that Kentucky has).

The point is to clarify that Kentucky is not destined to be poorer than the rest of the country (while pointing out to the folks who are racists that a lack of diversity is probably one reason they're behind the rest of the nation) and that its culture and institutions - products of leadership and history - are making it poor and need to change. The way to make this change is to create the future rather than defend the past, to change leadership, starting with the most powerful man in the state.