The Seventh Party System: Part LVII
Map of the United States
Part I - Metropotamia
Part II - Alta California
Part III - North Carolina
Part IV - New Jersey
Part V - Adams
Part VI - Alabama
Part VII - Rhode Island
Part VIII - Sequoyah
Part IX - Assenisipia
Part X - East Florida
Part XI - Tennessee
Part XII - Kansas
Part XIII - Dakota
Part XIV - Arizona
Part XV - Delaware
Part XVI - Oregon
Part XVII - Ozark
Part XVIII - New Hampshire
Part XIX - Western Connecticut
Part XX - New York
Part XXI - Santo Domingo
Part XXII - South Carolina
Part XXIII - Baja California
Part XXIV - Chersonesus
Part XXV - Canal Zone Territory
Part XXVI - West Florida
Part XXVII - Missouri
Part XXVIII - Colorado
Part XXIX - Trinidad and Tobago
Part XXX - Pennsylvania
Part XXXI - Wisconsin
Part XXXII - Lincoln
Part XXXIII - Deseret
Part XXXIV - Platte
Part XXXV - Kiribati
Part XXXVI - New Mexico
Part XXXVII - Maine
Part XXXVIII - Alaska
Part XXXIX - Hamilton
Part XXXX - Mississippi
Part XXXXI - North Virginia
Part XXXXII - Bioko
Part XXXXIII - Hawaii
Part XXXXIV - Louisiana
Part XXXXV - Seward
Part XXXXVI - Illinoia
Part XXXXVII - Georgia
Part XXXXVIII - Columbia
Part XXXXIX - Maryland
Part L - Texas
Part LI - District of Columbia
Part LII - Vermont
Part LIII - Yazoo
Part LIV - Jefferson
Part LV - Virgin Islands
Part LVI - Washington
Part LVII - Puerto Rico
Kentucky is a rather interesting Upper South state, since it is the one of only two states of the region were the Democrats are allies to the Republicans, as well being the only state whose Democratic party is dominated by the Contract Concord faction.
The history of Kentucky had historically been as a battleground between North and South, having only narrowly succeeded to the Confederacy during the Civil War and having been quickly absorbed back into the Union as loyalists drove out the Confederates out of Frankfort within a matter of months. In the mid 1800s the state would consistently swing back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans, however with the rise of Labor in the late 1800s FPTP soon lead for Democrats to become dominant more often than not. Nevertheless, by the National Union era the state became solid gray territory and would not see the Republicans regain any semblance of power until the 1980s.
It was the 1980s, which saw the zenith of Republican strength across the country, including Kentucky, that would eventually led to the birth of the Democratic party's second newest faction, the Contract Concord. Formed in 1994 by Newt Paul, they thought that the only way to defeat the Republicans were to join them in promoting fiscal conservatism, blurring the line between themselves and the Republican's socially conservative Buckley faction. While this at first looked to be a fatal decision as many economically left wing voters ditched the Democrats to support Labor, leading to the Labor Kentucky government of 1994 to 2002, eventually it turned out to be a winning strategy to unite both the Democrats and Republicans in a conservative alliance against Labor.
Every since 2002 Kentucky has had a Democratic-Republican government, reaching an impressive 70% of the seats in the 2008 election. Even the 2010 election, held less than a year after the Second Great Depression began still returned a conservative majority, albeit by the slimmest of margins by only three seats. Once again in 2016 the Democratic-Republican alliance soared to unimaginable heights, with the 53 Democratic seats and 41 Republican seats meaning that the conservative coalition held a whopping 75% of the seats in Kentucky.
With the federal Labor coalition having many much more pressing concerns as opposed to the conservative stronghold of Kentucky, very little resources where diverted from the federal party to help the Kentucky Labor party in its 2018 campaign. And while they were able to regain eight seats in this years' election, the Democratic-Republican coalition still holds more than two-thirds of the seats, and as such, the 16 year governorship of Randal McConnell is much more likely to end in the untimely time death of this septuagenarian than in any sort of electoral defeat.
Government:
Democrats - The party of the South, originally it used to be focused on securing the welfare of all white Christian men, but has now moved on to securing the well being of only the richest white Christian men. This shift was made possible by the machinations of the Contract Concord, a school of thought founded and lead by Newt Paul until his thrown into a coma by the double whammy of cancer and multiple sclerosis in 1999. While Paul died after 14 years on life support his successor, Randal McConnell, made sure to further his legacy, promoting the ideals of Contract Concord through mass media campaigns that saw the airwaves packed with advertisements that glorified the ideology of the Contract Concord and blamed Labor for all the state's problems. To this day such advertisements continue to dominate radio and local TV news, blaming the Kentucky Labor party for the state's opioid death toll of 4,989 per year and its poverty rate of 23.6%.
Republicans - The party of business, they used to represent the party of the North for Kentucky, and to this day continue to control with an iron grip such strongholds as Covington and Lexington. While the party was sharply divided between Buckley and Dewey Republicans in the late 1900s, by the time of 2002 the party was in the hands of the Buckley faction, and the party's alliance with the Democrats has only lead to the growing strength of the Buckley Kentucky Republicans. As such, while many rural areas are dominated by the Democrats, the Republicans continue to hold monopolies over the cities and suburbs, which every street corner and parking lot full of billboards extolling the greatness of GOP leader Ron Gingrich.
Opposition:
Labor - The dominant party of Kentucky from 1994 to 2002, they represent the interests of Kentucky's coal miners and its minority population. Unfortunately, with the slow death of the coal industry in the state their support in the rural areas has whittled away, to the point where even getting majorities in Allegheny has become a bit of a challenge. The state also has been very unfriendly to its youth population, with the lacking of any funding for its state universities leading to 97% of students who do go to college attending an university out of state. As such, all parties have been forced to try and capture the votes of older and older voters, many of whom seem to have chosen the Democrats and Republicans over Labor.
Constitution - The party for right wing Christian fanatics, due to the propaganda efforts of the Democrats and Republicans their voteshare has been kept to a minimum. But it still is growing slowly but surely throughout the years as religious fundamentalism is on the rise throughout the South.
Credit for the basemap goes to Chicxulub.
