My Old Kentucky Home

Aside from the few bright spots within the boarders of the Bluegrass State, I am largely embarrassed to admit that I was born and raised in Kentucky. And while we are home to the most famous horse race in the world and what once was a giant amongst college basketball, the state is largely dominated by rural attitudes about race and politics.

So it's no surprise that teabaggers around here are full-tilt crazy. A small cell of the group that is now successfully fracturing the GOP invaded the offices of Republican Senator Jim Bunning and Think Progress was their to listen to their complaints:

In the conference room, the very first protester to speak said that if the country dissolved, he would move to the first state that seceded. After his speech, fellow protesters began giving their views about fascism, the President’s birth certificate, and ways to avoid paying taxes.

Make no mistake about it, when reactionary conservatives from Kentucky have a complaint about Obama, it's is most certainly based on race. But around here, conservatives don't see themselves as racists. They view it as a tradition, some bizarre time-honored school of thought that has to be instilled within the children of the state. In that regard, the statements from people like Janeane Garofalo that the "teaparties" are about racism are more accurate than the Kentucky participants are willing to admit.

It's a very peculiar state to live in while Obama is President. We've not only got racism, but we've got Mitch McConnell and potentially Rand Paul. The later is running for the Senate and is just as adle-brained as his father.

And while not everyone in the state espouses such ignorant and ill-conceived ideals as the teabaggers, it unfortunate that those voices of reason are too often drowned out by the shriek and cries of conservatives.