Kentuckians Made Their Bed, Now They're Upset They Have to Lie In It

Matt Bevins talking to Kentucky voters in May

I am trying to feel sympathetic about this story, but I'm having trouble getting past "How stupid can you be?!"  Whining about a situation you personally helped to create just does not get my tear ducts working.

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KENTUCKY CONFRONTS THE CONSEQUENCES OF ITS DECISION, by Steve Benen 

Arguably more than any other state, Kentucky has created an amazing health network.  Under Gov. Steve Beshear's (D) leadership, the states success story has served as a national model for overhauling an ineffective system, replacing it with an effective system that costs less and covers more. 

And now it's likely to be torn down on purpose.  Gov.-elect Matt Bevin (R) ran on a platform of dismantling Kynect and scrapping Medicaid expansion (in) the state, despite the fact that it's been a literal life-saver for many families in his adopted home state.  Last week, the Republican won his race easily, offering him the opportunity to do exactly what he promised to do.

One of the people enjoying new health care under the ACA's expanded Medicaid program is Dennis Blackburn.

The 56-year-old mechanic hasn't worked in 18 months... He has a hereditary liver disorder, numbness in his hands and legs, back pain from folding his 6-foot-1-inch frame into 29-inch mine shafts as a young man, plus an abnormal heart rhythm... 

...(Blackburn) heard about the Big Sandy's Shelby Valley Clinic.  There he met (Mindy) Fleming, who helped him sign up for one of the managed-care Medicaid plans available in Kentucky. 

It would appear Blackburn is exactly the kind of Kentuckian who would go out of his way to protect the health benefits he needs--and yet, Blackburn voted for Bevin last week... 

...Now that Election Day has come and gone, Blackburn is facing deeply unfortunate circumstances:  the governor he helped elect, who vowed to take away his health security, is probably going to do exactly what he promised to do. 

Blackburn told the Washington Post, "It doesn't look to me as if (Bevin) understands.  Without this little bit of help these people are giving me, I could probably die... It's not right to not understand something but want to stamp it out."

What's "not right" is to refuse to "understand" that voting for a guy who has promised to take away your health care is--and there is no polite way to say this--stupid...supremely stupid, highly stupid, unbelievably stupid, fantastically stupid, the absolute ultimate of stupidness. 

I'm reserving my sympathy for those who voted for Jack Conway (D), but are nevertheless facing the consequences of sharing their state with ignoramuses like Dennis Blackburn who worship the elephant even when said elephant has made it perfectly clear it plans to sh*t in their living rooms.

You can read Mr. Beven's full article here.