Kentuckians who can't vote can participate in the KYP
by Anna Keller (editor)
Article II (D), Bylaws of the Kentucky Party
The KYP supports equality of opportunity for everyone in the Commonwealth.
Article III (B)
People who are not eligible to vote may be non-member Friends of the KYP. They may be on mailing lists and chats, serve on committees and advisory groups, observe meetings as registered guests of members, and attend annual conventions as registered guests of members.
3.4 million Kentuckians can vote. Almost half a million people who live and work in Kentucky can't vote or hold office. About 295,000 are citizens old enough to work but too young to vote, 150,000 are felons, 95,000 are non-citizen adults, and 25,000 are judged mentally incompetent.
The KYP's bylaws encourage political participation by Kentuckians who can't vote or hold office. This is an attack on politics that undervalue our labor, monopolize expertise in nonprofits and bureaucrats, and distract us from elites by turning us on each other.
Kentuckians said the most important reason for their 2024 vote was the economy. Every single Department of Labor work classification (except lawyers and truck drivers) lost purchasing power during Biden's presidency. The price gouging that causes inflation is a big part of that story, but American labor is clearly undervalued and underpaid.
Our great-grandparents made a world where labor unions negotiated a good deal for working people. Because most unions excluded black people, bosses could, and would, use undervalued black labor to break strikes and cut everybody's wages. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, bosses started replacing black labor with undocumented labor -- illegal immigrants -- to suppress wages. If you're undocumented, speak up and your boss can call Immigration. If you're a citizen, speak up and your boss can replace you with undocumented temps.
To fix the economy, we need to fix the two-tier labor system. Both fixes depend on public participation in politics. According to Michael Lind, "parties that were national federations of local, mass-membership organizations have given way to parties controlled by donors and media consultants." Donors -- rich people -- get their way through the nonprofit world. You can't vote out nonprofit so-called leaders who claim to speak on your behalf.
To get funding, John Arena writes, "nonprofits are usually required to develop single-issue campaigns that address the needs of some oppressed group, based on age, race, sexuality, disability, or some other identity." As everybody's purchasing power decreases, and universal government programs are replaced by targeted nonprofit campaigns, it's easy for demagogues to point the finger at those oppressed identity groups. If you're in one, you may not benefit from nonprofits that fundraise in your name, but you make a juicy target for hucksters selling resentment.
The Republican Party says Democrats use immigrants to steal elections. As for Democrats, it's clear the party of overeducated scolds is not the party of undocumented roofers, housekeepers, and meat processing plant workers. In workplaces, nonprofits, and parties, people speak for and about undocumented people, but the Kentucky Party is the only political group in this state that really wants to fix immigration for everyone. To get there, the bylaws provide for participation by everyone.
Like undocumented immigrants, it's not hard to see how youth, felons, and other silenced Kentuckians could improve all our circumstances by improving their own. The KYP bylaws reject divide-and-conquer strategies. We're for the common good of the Commonwealth, which takes regular people working together. Elites might try, but we won't be played against each other.
This article, like all original content in The Kentuckian, is released into the public domain. The Kentuckian is an independent publication. It doesn't represent the opinion of the Kentucky Party or any of its committees.