About

By The Flannel Fist

 Welcome to Ordinary People, Loud Ideas - a politics blog with dirt under its nails and fire in its gut.

I write from a rural, working-class, leftist perspective that doesn’t always get airtime in the mainstream. This space is for sharp takes on policy, personal reflection, and political clarity - especially from the margins. If you’ve ever felt talked down to by cable news or left out of the conversation altogether, you’re in the right place.


I believe in mutual aid, economic justice, cannabis legalization, labor power, and the idea that the people closest to the problem should be closest to the solution. This blog is a place to think out loud, call things what they are, and try to make sense of a world that’s often designed to confuse us.

I’m not here to speak for everyone, but I hope what I share here resonates with more than a few.



Popular posts from this blog

Brett Guthrie’s “Victory” is Rural Kentucky’s Loss

By The Flannel Fist
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Brett Guthrie is out here celebrating like he just handed every working family in Kentucky a golden ticket. He calls the new Republican-backed bill a “victory” and claims it “protects the most vulnerable” while “cutting waste.” But let’s be honest: this isn’t a victory. It’s a betrayal . A betrayal wrapped in talking points and tied up with a flag pin. Medicaid Reform? More Like Medicaid Gutting Guthrie says the bill “secures Medicaid for those who need it most,” but let’s read between the lines. What he really means is: cut off Medicaid for people who are poor, working-class, or too sick to meet some arbitrary definition of ‘deserving.’ He’s parroting the tired lie that Medicaid is overrun with “able-bodied adults who choose not to work.” In reality? Many of those adults are working  in jobs that don’t offer insurance Others are in school, caregiving, or living with untreated mental illness And let’s not forget rural Kentuckians who can’t drive 30 miles to the neares...
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Cutting the Cord After Cashing In: Senator Meredith’s Medicaid Hypocrisy

By The Flannel Fist
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When Steve Meredith tells you to “take a deep breath,” he’s hoping you’ll forget to ask who lit the fire in the first place. The state senator from Leitchfield recently posted a long-winded defense of the legislature’s Medicaid budget cuts, painting himself as the sober-minded voice of reason in a storm of “fearmongering.” But if you know Steve Meredith’s past; not just his politics, but his career,  then you know exactly why his reassurances ring hollow. Because long before he was calling Medicaid unsustainable, he was profiting from it. From Hospital Exec to Political Opportunist. Before his election to the Kentucky Senate in 2016, Meredith ran a rural hospital system. Instead of being remembered as a bold reformer, he left a legacy of overworked nurses, underpaid staff, and a toxic culture that prioritized the bottom line over patient care. “Cutting the fat” in his world meant laying off frontline workers and slashing benefits while preserving bloated executive perks. And ...
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Rep. Shane Baker’s Anti-Intellect Power Play

By The Flannel Fist
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At a July 15 legislative committee hearing in Frankfort, Rep. Shane Baker, who once pushed to return the Ten Commandments to Kentucky’s Capitol, decided to interrogate a university course on Black Lives Matter, gender and women’s studies. He flat-out demanded to know why our tax dollars are funding lessons on equality and justice . Smokescreen of "Accountability" Rep. Shane Baker wants you to believe he’s just being a good steward of your tax dollars. That’s the role he plays in committee hearings, calmly asking bureaucrats why the University of Kentucky would dare offer courses that explore systemic inequality and gender justice. But don’t let the tone fool you. This isn’t budget oversight. It’s a censorship campaign wearing a fiscal mask. In the July 15 hearing, Baker singled out a UK course titled “Gender and Women’s Studies in the U.S.: Black Lives Matter.” He read the course description aloud to the committee with a tone of suspicion, pausing after this line: “The 14th...
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