Hubris — foolish, arrogant pride that drove mortals to defy the gods — was a big-time sin in ancient Greece.
The Good Book, in Proverbs 16:18, also warns against it: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
The secular Oxford Languages online dictionary defines hubris as “excessive pride or self-confidence.”
Shortly before the General Assembly adjourned, hubris broke out in the House Republican supermajority. Infected lawmakers had fun ridiculing the super-minority Democrats by marking what looked like Bingo cards.
The outbreak spread to the Lege’s GOP supermajority upper chamber, or at least to its president, Sen. Bertram Robert Stivers II.
There’s a short video circulating on Facebook where Stivers belittles Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. “He has had very limited, uh, influence on this,” he intones, meaning regular Republican overrides of his vetoes. “It’s been the way it’s been for his whole term," he chuckles, “Both terms. He has little or no influence on the policy of the state of Kentucky.”
The predicted Democratic Blue wave — some say tsunami — will likely be more of a trickle in Kentucky. Stivers is in no danger of losing his post to a Democrat. The GOP Senate bulge is 32-6. (Stivers’ party rules the roost in the House 80-20.)
“The sun doesn’t shine on one dog’s bottom all the time,” is an old western Kentucky expression. (We don’t say “bottom,” but Forward Kentucky is family friendly.)
A enemigo que huye puente de plata is a Spanish proverb from the 15th century that translates into English as “a fleeing enemy, silver bridge.” In other words, if you’ve beaten your foes, let them go and don’t do anything stupid to help them come back and beat you.
I don't know what prompted Stivers' gratuitous swipe at the governor. Maybe he figures his party is everlastingly unbeatable from Jordan to Jenkins (except in “liberal” Louisville and a tad less liberal Lexington) and is destined to bask in Kentucky political sunshine forever. Did he figure a cheap shot from the Senate chief would make a dandy follow-up to the House shenanigans?
Anyway, when the big-league gods of Hellas figured a mortal had gotten too big for his britches, they’d send a minor-league goddess to exact retribution. Her name was Nemesis.
Stivers’ smarminess and the Bingo stunt has fired up the Dems in my neck of the farthest western Kentucky woods, and, I’m pretty sure, statewide.
Maybe there aren’t enough of us Democrats to matter here in the Jackson Purchase, arguably Kentucky's deepest Trumpistan. But there are elsewhere in the commonwealth.
If I were a Democratic hopeful in a competitive House or Senate district — and there are some — I’d run that Stivers video and that photo of the Bingo cards every chance I got right up to election day.
When she heard about the Bingo business, Anderson County nationally-published pundit and essayist Teri Carter, a frequent Forward Kentucky contributor, wrote on Facebook: “As another elected Republican in Frankfort told me in the fall of 2023: The bad thing about having such a huge supermajority is that we do really stupid stuff, because we can.”
Carter took aim at Stivers in a Thursday FB post:
"Funny thing is, once you rise to Senate President you can get by with things that normal people with jobs, even fellow lawmakers, could never. You can make rambling statements in committee that don't make a lick of sense, curl your lip and wag your finger in the face of a female senator, chastise the press from the floor, laughably censure a KY Supreme Court justice, whatever you want sweet pea. Nobody will really blink an eye. In fact, your many toadies will applaud you.
"It's good to be a Middling White Man."
Carter may be on to something. Stivers must know he's a mediocre political hack who will never dwell in the governor's mansion, much less be a presidential contender. Hence, the gratuitous Beshear beat down.
But at least the Gentleman from Senate District 25 can glory in adulation from his toadies and sycophants.
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