LNC Chair Nicholas Sarwark speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky.
Every year, St. Jerome’s Parish in Mayfield, Ky., holds the Fancy Farm Picnic, a community event with barbecue, games, a 5k run, and political speeches. The event was designated by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “world’s largest picnic” in 1985, and although it has long been dominated by Republicans and Democrats, this is the third year that the Libertarian Party of Kentucky has been invited to have a presence at Fancy Farm, with an official booth and participation in the lineup of speakers. LP National Chair Nicholas Sarwark represented LP Kentucky by speaking at the picnic on Saturday, Aug. 5.
“I’m sad that I didn’t get an opportunity to shake Sen. McConnell’s hand, because he had to rush on out of here,” Sarwark said during his remarks at the Fancy Farm event. “And I wanted to say ‘thank you’ to him because the work that Sen. McConnell and the Republican Party, that controls both houses of Congress and the presidency … the work that they’re doing recruiting for the Libertarian Party is better than anything I could’ve ever done. There’s no better answer for people who ask, ‘Why shouldn’t I be a Republican?” than watching them take both houses of Congress and the presidency, and they can’t even repeal the bill they’ve been talking about repealing for seven damn years.”
Kentucky Educational Television recorded Sarwark’s remarks, which are embedded below.
Sarwark was also quoted by the Louisville Courier-Journal on Aug. 6:
“Maybe McConnell had to get back to Washington so he could continue not to get anything done,” Sarwark was quoted as saying in a piece highlighting the “best jokes and lines” from speeches delivered at the picnic.
A second Courier-Journal article reiterated Sarwark’s point that, despite GOP control over both the legislative and executive branches of government, it has been unable to repeal Obamacare.
“Politicians have been speaking at the picnic for a very long time,” LP Kentucky wrote. “Somewhere along the way, it became a bare-knuckle verbal boxing match (with no swearing). That tradition continues today. And who, in the LP, is better at laying down some savage truth than our Chairman?”
The Fancy Farm Picnic is free and open to the public with food available to purchase from the Knights of Columbus and other members of the community. According to the Daily Beast, the 2014 menu “boasted nine tons of pork and mutton, 1,900 pounds of chicken, 193 gallons of corn, 410 pounds of lima beans, 225 pounds of peas and 1,400 pounds of potato salad.” Approximately 20,000 people attend each year.
