A Warning From a Democrat in a Red State
As a novelist, I often travel the country to talk about my books. During those events, almost invariably someone will ask me why my home state of Kentucky is so conservative. Many of these people ask why we’ve kept Mitch McConnell in office for almost 36 years. They take their anger at him out on me.
Once, a fellow writer told me I shouldn’t have been invited to a literary conference because of my state’s complicity in McConnell’s obstructionism during Barack Obama’s presidency. “Aren’t you ashamed to be a Kentuckian?” he asked, spittle flying from his lips. Recently, during a virtual event while I was discussing the theme of forgiveness in my novels, a woman typed into the comments: “I guess we’ll just have to forgive you for Mitch McConnell.”
Time and again, I’ve been called out for his presence in the Senate—during Q&As in front
