Radio Free America: Don’t be a J6 Democrat

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Mitch McConnell is in the midst of the least destructive phase of his career. He’s convalescing at home after an unidentified health scare left him hospitalized for more than a month, leaving Republicans without a key Senate vote as they run out of legislative days before the November election.

Yet some Democrats are treating this like a disaster. After all, Kentucky’s governor is Andy Beshear — a Democrat — with presidential ambitions, no less! Shouldn’t he be able to declare the seat vacant and install a Democrat in McConnell’s place? Leave aside the fact that McConnell is alive, and that a coverup of his death would require dozens of health care professionals in sapphire-blue Washington, D.C. to risk losing their medical licenses and facing criminal charges. Why can’t Beshear just miracle a Democrat in there?

Well, for starters, McConnell is still alive. And a vacancy doesn’t occur when a senator doesn’t show up to work for a month. But even if it did, a little thing called the Kentucky Code stands in Beshear’s way. A law passed in 2021 required Beshear to appoint a replacement from the previous senator’s party, while a subsequent one passed in 2024 scrapped the interim senator altogether and required a special election to choose a successor. Beshear has hinted that both laws may violate the Kentucky Constitution, but neither has been tested in court.

Trying to install a Democrat in the seat without a court ruling invalidating the 2021 and 2024 laws is, strictly speaking, illegal. But that hasn’t stopped some Democratic influencers from demanding Beshear break the law. Perhaps foremost among them is former political strategist Keith Edwards (depicted below), who has collected 75,000 signatures as of yesterday for a petition demanding Beshear appoint a Democrat to the seat in contravention of the written law and the fact that Mitch McConnell is still alive. If you’re wondering if anyone has ever tried to install someone in a political office in contravention of law and facts before, the answer is of course; that’s what happened on Jan. 6.

Illustration by: Greg Bakun. This image was generated by artificial intelligence.

Somehow, this is even less effective than the Jan. 6 rioters, whose goal of not certifying the electoral count was achievable. Because even if Beshear appoints a Democrat to fill a seat that’s not vacant, what then? He signs a piece of paper that goes to… the Senate. The president of the Senate is JD Vance. He’ll just throw that letter in the trash, right next to a worn-out copy of “The Turner Diaries.”

Beshear would then have to sue Vance to seat the appointee. Adopting Edwards’s tactic would merely trade a lawsuit where he was acting in good faith for one where he isn’t. And I feel crazy, but I must reiterate: McConnell is still alive, and the seat is not vacant.

So what’s the point of all this? It’s not as if you need to raise awareness about McConnell. Kentucky’s TV stations have been all over this story. And Beshear himself is ratcheting up the pressure for more transparency in national outlets. The answer lies in Edwards’s work history.

Before he was a YouTuber, he worked for the Lincoln Project, a PAC that helped make Donald Trump more popular while scamming liberals. He learned how to make content that made donors feel good, even though it did nothing to help defeat Trumpism.

So even though the Lincoln Project itself is circling the drain, its legacy lives on through influencers like Edwards. Without a theory of change, without a basis in law, without a basis in fact, he has gotten himself 75,000 new email addresses. I asked him if he’s going to use them to raise money for himself; he hasn’t gotten back to me yet, but I have an idea of the direction this is headed in.

Which is too bad because Beshear, as a Democrat who’s won statewide election three times in a state that hasn’t voted for his party’s presidential candidate this century, is an intriguing potential 2028 nominee. It should be a bigger scandal that a former Lincoln Project staffer is trying to take him down out of what seems to be pure self-interest. (Keith, please email me back with your plans for the list!)

In the meantime, McConnell is convalescing at home. He knows that he’s cost his party some votes with his absence, but maybe seeing some Democratic voters turning on Beshear because of bad faith attacks is making him feel better.

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AROUND AMERICA

• Independent Dan Osborn managed to push his Democratic opponent out in the Nebraska Senate race, giving him a one-on-one race against incumbent Republican Pete Ricketts. And his latest video shows why he might have a chance. We need more candidates willing to do goofy stunts that show how much they appreciate where they live.

• Republican Texas Railroad Commission nominee Bo French is spreading antisemitic conspiracies about his Jewish opponent, Jon Rosenthal. As Texans love telling you, the railroad commission is a powerful statewide post that actually regulates the oil and gas industry. So while the title may sound a little silly, this is a high stakes election; French isn’t just running for dogcatcher.

Screencap via the Washington Post

• After the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April, I asked if rural America was finally fed up with Republicans. Well, dark money right-wing group Americans for Prosperity has found that 20% of Republicans who voted in each of the last four elections are at risk of not turning out in 2026. The full article is paywalled, but the quote above captures their problem with rural America nicely.

• For those of you interested in history, or movies starring Sean Penn, the 1978 Briggs Initiative was a moment where the tide started turning on homophobia electorally. Even though society wasn’t particularly tolerant of LGBTQ people back then, they wouldn’t stand for outright discrimination against them. I bring it up because North Carolina State Representative Erin Paré is trying to ban transgender teachers from wearing clothing that matches their identity.

• After he lost to Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral election, Andrew Cuomo insisted that he would not leave the city. He tried his hand at a weekly radio gig, but he hasn’t taped a show in a month. So his new gig appears to be shilling for crypto, and I couldn’t help but notice his Zoom background looks different than the one from his mayoral campaign. So did he stay in the city? Move back to the suburbs? Decamp to Florida? I asked his spokesman Rich Azzopardi where he was broadcasting from, but I haven’t heard back.

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INTERNET STUFF I LIKED THIS WEEK

For a dozen years, online pop culture discourse has been driven by Gamergate-style culture war beefing, ruining the experience of chopping it up about movies with your friends. But “The Odyssey” seems like it might have broken the spell. The epic movie (best one of the decade that doesn’t feature a few small beers IMO) has inspired discourse about art, philosophy, history and sociology that’s… actually good? Are the liberal arts making a comeback here?

I thought this ancient historian’s breakdown of what it got right was useful (moreso than Emily Wilson’s takedown in the London Review of Books, which seemed more like a turf battle than criticism). But the thing that really got my gears turning was Flint Del Sol’s essay on Elliot Page as Sinon. It’s short but relevant, especially if you’re a political practitioner.

Also, Page should do a reboot of the “Trailer Park Boys” where he takes over his television father’s job.

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BOOK CLUB

Last month, one of my most dedicated readers asked me why I was so anti-crypto. Books like “Number Go Up” and movies like “Everyone Is Lying To You For Money” go a long way toward explaining why instrumentally it’s a ruinous idea. But David McWilliams’s “The History of Money” does the best job laying out the underlying theory. Two major themes emerge from his work:

1. Money is a critical element of the social compact between governments and the governed
2. Fiat currency in particular has driven global prosperity since the end of World War II

Cryptocurrency undermines both — creating a limited, private money supply is ruinous for everyone who isn’t profiting off of it. Just look at World Liberty Financial!

So yeah, best of luck to Andrew Cuomo in his future endeavors. 

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HELP US OUT

Thanks to everyone who suggested gochujang recipes. I have enough stir fry recipes to work my way through that $4 bottle in no time!

Also, I’ll be on vacation again next week (don’t worry, it’s all gas no brakes through the end of the year after that). But in the meantime, what should Christopher Nolan adapt next? At first I thought Don Quixote, but others online pointed out that there’s no way he’d be able to capture all the jokes. So I was thinking he could tackle another Spanish-language classic: “The Feast of the Goat.” You guys have any better ideas? Email me back and let me know.

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