MatthewGriswold Bevin is a fundie wingnut madman and the 62nd governor of Kentucky, representingtheTea Party, from 2015 to 2019. A lot ofpositions taken by Bevin on issues are exactly what you’d expect – includingopposition to marriage equality – and we won’t cover his antics in any detail.

 

We can’t,however, quite overlook Bevin’s claims that government employees refusing to dotheir job (while demanding to keep them) is a “free speech” issue – yes,Bevinwas a firm supporter ofthe antics of Kim Davis. In fact,Bevin thinks Davis is an inspiration “to thechildren of America”.

 

Bevin isalso acreationist and climate change denierwho supports. creationist attempts to“teachthe controversy” on issues like evolution andglobal warming – issues on which there is no relevantscientificcontroversybut on which fundies don’t like the facts and want others (school students) tobe confused about the facts, too. Bevinwas an ardent defender ofKen Ham’s attempts to obtain tax breaks forhis Ark park while simultaneously adhering tohiring practices that discrimate on religious issues. Indeed, Bevin ensuredthat the Ham’s deranged creationist roadside showwould get substantial statefunds instead. Bevin also declared both2016 and 2017 “Year of the Bible” in Kentucky. He has, on numerous occasions,voted to authorize Bible classes in public schools.

 

Of course, asyou would think given his views on facts,Bevin is no fan of public education or teachers. In 2018, he angrily “guaranteed”that teachers’ labor stoppage resulted in unsupervised children being sexuallyassaulted, physically harmed, or exposed to poison and drugs. But then, Bevinhas a curious understanding ofthings that cause other things to happen– in the wake ofthe Parkland school shooting and the Marshall CountyHigh School shooting in Kentucky, Bevindeclared that it was time toaddress what he falsely thought ofas causes, namelyvideo games(“it’s the same aspornography. They have desensitized people to the value of human life, to thedignity of women, to the dignity of human decency”) andzombie television shows. In 2017,he linked the violence at the whitenationalist rally in Charlottesville to the Bible no longer being used as atextbook in public schools. Hehas also suggestedroving prayer patrols as asolution to violence (and suggestedthat critics of the idea would go to hell). On the other hand, he has also suggestedthat violence might be needed to protect the biblical values he protects.

 

When helost the election in 2019, Bevin did a Trump and claimed massive election fraud,referring for instance – of coursewithout a shred ofevidence – to “thousands ofabsentee ballots that were illegally counted”, people allegedly being “incorrectlyturned away” at thepolls,“anumber of [voting] machines that didn’t work properly”, and ballotsbeingstored in open boxes. He seemsto have gotten his info mostly from his “good friend”Erika Calihan, a random woman whom Bevinappointed to a state government position and who appears to have found theconspiracy theories on facebook.

 

Bevinhas also admitted to exposing his kids to chickenpox togive them immunity – which is … not a good idea and reveals a fundamentalmisunderstanding of the point (as well as of the efficacy and safety ofvaccines).

 

Diagnosis: Adreadful character, and too much even for Kentucky, apparently, who at leasthad sense enough to vote him out. He is, unfortunately, probably not completelyout of the game yet, however.