The Kentuckian

KYP 2024 statewide special convention

by Anna Keller (editor)

Watch almost 4 hours of the Convention.

The Kentucky Party held its first statewide convention November 30th at the Richmond, Kentucky public library. Twenty-five people from more than six counties attended from a number of groups including Berea for Palestine and Lexington for Palestine.

The KYP is an anti-war, anti-corruption, pro-Kentucky group formed in 2024 by the Kentucky for Palestine movement. If you live here you'll keep seeing it on your ballot.

Business

All present read and discussed the KYP bylaws (PDF | plaintext) and elected the first seven-member statewide Executive Committee with ranked-choice instant-runoff voting. The EC appointed officers and the chair and secretary of the Vision Committee. At open meetings, the VC will assemble the KYP's 2025 discussion platform from planks submitted by members, as outlined by the bylaws.

Participants ate well and workshopped a strategic approach to the next four years. During a political "open mic" each convention participant had the floor for five minutes. Many spoke from the podium for less than two before yielding their time, but all spoke.

Your editor at the podium.

Why convention participants care

I heard during public comment that most participants have no family or friends in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, or Syria. What drives them?

Participants made the argument that the Gaza genocide should not be tolerated in this world. It should not happen even once. It's only happening because the rails that prevented it from happening are being dismantled. If it isn't stopped, its architects aggressively prosecuted, and guardrails re-installed indicating what this world's nations accept, then it's the new shape of conflict.

Irreconcilable differences and greed mixed with might will produce one, two, many Gaza genocides. The technologies and legal and moral frameworks will become unsupervised drones loitering on the US-Mexico border, lethally shooting people based on their similarity to faces, cellphone IMEIs, or behavioral characteristics in a database. First, they came for the Palestinians.

Bulldozers will demolish the suddenly condemned houses of "Trump supporters" or "teachers and administrators pushing DEI and radical gender ideology." Homeless people will be detained indefinitely without charges. Water, power, and cell service will be cut to neighborhoods a Large Language Model predicts fit the pattern of where a criminal pornographer would live.

Participants' concerns reflected their life experience and whether they were of the age shaped by the Patriot Act and Authorization for Use of Military Force, the global financial crisis, or the pandemic emergency. One participant's life experience led to concern about what Egyptian President Sisi will do with the new impunity.

This is different from anti-war talk in years past. Participants had less to say about the budget deficit and national debt, about the Founders' intent, human rights, international law, or compassion. We insist, I think, that murderous sadism and disregard for the value of human life and dignity be met with civilization, with the precepts of our religious and moral traditions. Otherwise, the Gaza genocide's coming here.

What's next

The KYP can do four things:

  1. Shape the debate, listen, organize, and do large-scale popular education in election cycles,
  2. replace bad officials, even if once elected KYP public officials are blocked from doing positive good,
  3. develop a reputation as balancers and diplomats in local, Commonwealth, and national politics,
  4. develop and pass positive policy that restores the rule of law, strengthens diplomatic management of conflict, and upholds the sanctity of life.

The order of action discussed at the convention is to develop the KYP platform and public-facing communications, identify candidates for public office throughout the Commonwealth, and strengthen the KYP's canvassing machine so it can rapidly collect the petition signatures needed to run candidates for any office.

If you want to run for something in 2026, 2027, or 2028, contact the KYP secretary, Ryan Anderson, at thekentuckyparty@gmail.com. The KYP will gather signatures to get you on the ballot, and help fund and advise your campaign. Ryan's also your contact to propose language for inclusion in the KYP platform, gather petition signatures, or fund raise.

Upcoming races

KYP Executive Committee

KYP Vision Committee

Get involved

Maybe we're a step closer to peace.

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.