For Democrats to regain ground in the mountains, don’t hide your views. Tell the truth.

Greg Stumbo misses the power he once wielded. He was the wheeler-dealer. Need a road? A bridge repaired? You had to see him. Civil rights? Not so much. And Big Coal had no problems with Frankfort Democrats. Greg was a Democrat when Democrats were the default party of power. As Austin Horn’s Red Wave points out, that day is past.

But Greg Stumbo thinks there’s a way to get past this new reality: the Democrats just have to stop being Democrats.

First, they need to abandon their opposition to forced pregnancies. Though Democrats are practically the only ones speaking up for a woman’s right to choose, the Democrats must at least be quiet about women’s rights.

Second, it goes without saying that urging sensible gun legislation is a hole one digs for defeat.

Third, privately support your gay and LBGT friends if you must, but don’t be photographed with them.

And finally, do lie about coal. What does it matter? A successful lie is better than a losing truth.

Good advice, Mr. Stumbo except for two things: one, it won’t work. People won’t believe Democrats have changed. They will suspect, rightly, that they are not to be trusted. And two: Democrats will cease to be Democrats no matter what they call themselves.

You say a party has to represent the people it serves. That is an old conundrum: how much to stay true to one’s beliefs and principles and how much to bend to the “will” of the people. Progressives have often been arrogant. They need to change. Respect the different beliefs on abortion but present the case for choice firmly. Tell the truth about Trump’s lies and crimes, but do not conflate his lack of integrity with his supporters’ sincerity. Acknowledge the great debts we owe to coal miners and salute their dignity while telling them the facts about coal’s future and place in our current world.

You are a politician of many decades, Mr. Stumbo, and so I think you are most probably right when you say progressives, especially progressives who follow my advice, are going to be losers in Kentucky for a long time. Because of that, their goal in running needs to change: to support those who are oppressed, to talk reasonably and sensitively about issues, to tell the truth as they understand it.

If they do that, over time they will gain respect. As they gain respect, they will get a hearing. And being heard, they may change hearts and minds.

That change probably won’t come in time for you, Mr. Stumbo. But your shortcut to power will bring neither power nor respect. It will, instead lead to a hollow organization with neither principles nor power.

Susan B. Anthony knew she wouldn’t live to see women’s suffrage. Moses up on his mountain only got to envision his promised land. Eastern Kentucky is shy a few mountains since mountain-top removal, but there are still enough of them. Climb one, Mr. Stumbo: look to the future. It will make your out-of- power present more bearable.

Joseph G. Anthony is a Kentucky Writer whose most recent novel, A Wounded Snake, centers around the 1900 assassination of Robert O’Hara Benjamin in Lexington’s Irish Town.