Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has been very, very, very concerned over the health of Kentuckians, and, of course, distraught that the voters of the Commonwealth elected a General Assembly which promised to, and did, rein in his oh-so-nobly intended executive actions.

So, when the Governor tweeted,^[1]The image to the right is a screenshot of the tweet, which you can enlarge by clicking on it. The hyperlink to the original is embedded in the word “tweeted”. “Listen, even if you disagree with me – even if you’ve stood outside my house or this Capitol and yelled about me – I care about you. I care about you and your families and I want you to be safe. These vaccines are safe. Please, go out and get yours,” everybody just knew that it was a deeply heartfelt and personal message, right?

Except, of course, if you had actually paid attention to our Governor’s tweets. The image to the left is from the Governor’s Twitter masthead, and notice: it states that, “Tweets from Andy are signed ^AB.”

The Governor’s oh-so-caring tweet was not signed ^AB, which means that it was written by one of his minions, not the Governor.

Of course, we all knew that politicians’ Twitter accounts are frequently handled by their subordinates, but when I see something like, “even if you’ve stood outside my house or this Capitol and yelled about me,” I know that it is meant to be personalized, and to fool those who aren’t really paying attention.

The meaning behind it? On May 20, 2020, a rally in the state capital, Frankfort, included the hanging of the Governor in effigy. The Governor was hardly so charitable at the time:

Beshear on effigy: ‘I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down’

Sarah Ladd | Louisville Courier Journal | May 26, 2020 | 5:37 PM EDT | Updated: May 27, 2020 | 11:23 AM EDT

A defiant Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday called the group of people that hanged him in effigy outside the Kentucky Capitol on Sunday a “mob” that carried out “a celebration of assassination on our Capitol grounds.”

“I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” Beshear said of the group who also brought a demand for his resignation to his doorstep.

The demonstration followed a Second Amendment rally on Sunday that drew more than 100 people to Frankfort.

Republican and Democrat leaders alike were quick to condemn the effigy, which bore a sign that said “sic semper tyrannis,” which means “thus always to tyrants” and is believed to have been shouted by John Wilkes Booth following his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Further down:

Chanting “on the other side of the glass from where I raise my kids” was “an action intended to use fear to get their way,” Beshear said.

And he called out politicians who at a May 2 rally encouraged people to remove masks, saying they were partly responsible for heated tensions. “You cannot fan the flames and then condemn the fire,” he said.

“Standing in front of a radical militia group, these elected officials claimed that people including me aren’t Christian, and even told them that people wanted babies to be murdered,” Beshear said. “What do you think was gonna happen after throwing out those type of claims to this group? Shouldn’t they have known what was going to happen?”

Of course, Governor Beshear does want babies to be murdered, having tried to loosen restrictions on abortion clinics and deciding, in his ’emergency’ decrees of March, 2020, that abortion clinics were ‘essential businesses’ which could remain open, but that churches had to be closed. Remember: the Governor sent the Kentucky State Police to record license plate and vehicle identification numbers of cars in church parking lots on Easter Sunday!

Hanging, or burning, in effigy of political figures has a long history: George W Bush, Barack Obama, and even George Washington, have been hanged in effigy as parts of political protests. That Mr Beshear got his panties in a wad over it does not bother me in the slightest; it actually amuses me.

So no, I don’t believe that the Governor’s (purported) tweet of yesterday afternoon expressed a serious concern on his part.

Fortunately, while it took far, far, far too long, the General Assembly did rein in the Governor’s ’emergency’ authority, frustrating the actions he’d like to take. That is a very good thing.