It seems like the absolute bare minimum for a government representative’s office is to let their constituents know if the representative is dead. Is that too much to ask in the United States, 2026? Maybe!!! The lack of transparency that the far right has shown, exemplified in the extreme case of Mitch McConnell’s sudden and total disappearance from public life, speaks to their chilling lack of regard not only for the well-being of their constituents but for the democratic process itself. But based on our convo with Charles Booker, the progressive candidate for one of Kentucky’s Senate seats, we still have reason to hope, even if it looks bleak out there. As we declare at the beginning of our conversation, Mitch McConnell is dead and Charles Booker is alive! Watch below:

The insanity of a major national government position being occupied by a dead man is so total it feels laughable (and like something straight out of a zombie movie). As we point out, it’s just not credible that a man of McConnell’s age goes to and stays in the hospital for a month without it being likely that the problem is life-threatening. Just a cursory look at the picture of him taken at the hospital is the opposite of reassuring — it really does look like AI! These people are not subtle, and they believe that their constituents are far less intelligent than they really are. All of this opens up a conversation that is quite serious, both in terms of its implications for the future of American politics and in terms of the revelations it provides about the Republican Party’s true loathing of and lack of respect for the American people, especially working-class voters. The Party wants to brazenly put up a ruse to (unsuccessfully) convince McConnell’s constituents that an elderly man in the hospital isn’t already dead, because that’s better for them than the alternative: giving voters an actual say in their national representation, because they know those voters are no longer buying what they’re selling.

Voters are excited about honest, inspiring, grassroots campaigns based in the candidates’ love and deep knowledge of their communities, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing in Charles Booker’s campaign to be a Senator from Kentucky. His vision of “new and bold leaders to stand for Kentucky” reflects his understanding that his potential constituents need representatives they can trust. That’s why Booker was the first to call attention to the Republican Party’s see-through bullshit with Mitch McConnell’s abandonment of his constituents. Through the example of this case, he’s made a platform that includes term limits — the importance of which we’re being confronted with right now — and rallied a big-tent organizing operation that has successfully converted Trump supporters into members of a coalition that will fight the oligarchy of the Republican Party and take that struggle all the way to the Senate.

Thanks for listening to this episode of KK&F. You can listen in tomorrow on major streaming surfaces