Democracy is Legislated Away in KY

I’m cutting to the chase. Our rights are being legislated away. Who knew that the KY House Transportation committee would rise to be the one to tackle our right to assembly and protest? To kneecap groups’ or individuals’ ability to stand up against governmental overreach and injustice?

All it takes to legislate our rights away is to introduce a bill or alter existing ones to achieve their goal. Take for example HB189. Sponsor Kevin Jackson (R-Warren County) and five of his Republican friends altered some language and basically removed the ability of Kentuckians to stand in the grass by a road and hold signs unless some local government agency grants permission. Unless there is a sidewalk nearby, law enforcement can make protesters vacate under threat of arrest. Oh, and they eliminated the ability to sit in a car and watch other cars. Those pesky ICE protestors need to be kept far away from what’s happening. In the spirit of clarity and in the vein of transportation, HB 188 should be named the “Rights Away” law, because that’s what this bill does.

Maybe it’s just me, but the timing of this seems really convenient. More and more people are seeing the abuses of ICE and standing up against the Trump administration’s cruel and unethical approaches. The “No Kings” marches? Maybe those too play into the decision to make protesting a privilege to be decided by a local fiscal court?

Let’s not forget the other changes the supermajority in Frankfort made in the past few years that erode democracy. Those pesky teachers standing up for their pensions? HB 399 passed to chill protests at the People’s house in Frankfort. Pre-filing bills so that the public could review and advocate? Nope, not any more. Posting substitutes to bills in enough time for the public to review and comment on? Not a thing in Frankfort.

Instead, we have processes that deter public advocacy and transparency. “Shell” bills with major impacts on our rights and livelihoods are used instead of an open and transparent bill process. Remember the “sewer bill” from a few years ago? Perfect example of how the legislative process has been corrupted. The teacher pension system was to be absolutely gutted by the supermajority who used a public works bills as a shell bill. Altered, fast-tracked and done in the late evening. Never mind the impact on educators and public education. Why ask for input from the public?

When we as Americans think of our fundamental rights, we quickly cite what we were taught in school: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to peaceful assembly, etc.

Our founders were absolutely brilliant to make these the bedrocks of American democracy. The very founding of our nation resulted from the interplay and robustness of these rights. Every movement to better our country (e.g., Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights) succeeded because Americans organized and protested while the press shone a light on the unjust and immoral.

Unfortunately, too many legislators and Americans have either given up on or poorly understand the basic tenets of democracy.

We are now seeing authoritarian movements in the modern age. Countries like Poland, Hungary and Russia have elections and legislative bodies. Yet, they are all situated so that the dear leader and his party control the media, manage the voting process, utilize sham legislative processes, and prohibit protests while asserting that they are doing the will of the people.

KY Republican legislators in their quest to follow the national MAGA movement/Project 2025/Heritage Foundation playbook have legislated away our rights, bit by bit. Democracy isn’t dying in darkness – it’s openly dying in the committee rooms and chambers in Frankfort complete with Robert’s Rules of Order, agendas, and the other appearances of normalcy.

But none of this is normal. None of this is democratic, no matter what the party in control says. George Orwell captured it best:

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”