(FANCY FARM, KY 2016) The massive wood fires on the evening grounds roar as if to call warriors to battle. Hidden from most view, these fires burn as if the fate of Kings and empires rest on their flames. Sunlight receding into deep shadows, as darkness works to claim the night.
Against this daily ritual of peace, roars the fires of Fancy Farm on the eve of great battle. Three eight foot tall giant metal drums belch flames four to six foot high into the new night. A small row of air vents on each drum gives the impression of mean, stark, staring red eyes coming your way.
Each drum and fire transform the large wood piles into charcoal that will cook the 20,000 pounds of pork into fresh barbecue for the next day crowds of about 10,000 people.
Some people claim that if you half close your eyes and look deeply into the burning drums you can almost hear a clarion call to battle, as if you were fierce Scotsmen charging down from the highlands of northern England to do battle against the English King.
For over fifty years of the great Fancy Farm homecoming event, these fires have foretold of great events on the following day of change, politics, men and women who dare to seize power or keep power over the Kingdom.
From the annals of civilizations through out history, there has been one single fact of kings and governments: political power is never shared or given, it is always taken.
Many believe that Fancy Farm is the one spot in America, where fires, foods, and political debate still frame the eternal warfare between those who have complete power over those who want to take that power away. Fancy Farm is a place of political dreams. It is a place where feudal serfs in the night, can become free men in the morning light.
Like ancient struggles of people's freedoms versus feudal elite power, Fancy Farm will be about which side of history will have the right to write the next page of the political future for Kentucky and America. Fancy Farm on this year will be about who will control the US Senate and become America's next President.
Like in 2015, Senator Mitch McConnell will be the pivotal figure in the heart of this battle. His GOP must defend the status quo of 24 sitting senators while the Democrat must protect only 10 senators. As he fights to protect his Republicans in Washington D.C. he will undertake to make his beloved Kentucky GOP establish a statewide political base that will last for 30 year generation of power.
McConnell is the King of Kentucky politics. For 40 years, he has ruled with an iron fist to control the Republican Party as well as state politics. Standing on the stage at Fancy Farm, protected by Kentucky State Police, Washington D.C. Capitol Police and Graves County deputies, McConnell sounded and looked tired. Sharing his stage was the new Tea Party Governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin.
Fancy Farm 2016 the tribe of Tea Party took another step toward controlling Congress. The Kentucky Tea Party, will more than likely win the battle over who replaces Ed Whitfield for political power and control over the 1st Congressional seat in far West Kentucky. With past short histories, Tea Party have fought McConnell through the battles with Bevin over control of the GOP party.
These same people may or may not now help Senator McConnell. Many of them view McConnell as being the ultimate Washington DC insider and been there too long. Herein lies the seeds of a new generation of Republican Party structure in Kentucky. From Fancy Farm, Kentucky, the fires of change may burn down the old kingdom as new warriors take control of the political landscape. |
