Unless you are on offense, you are going to lose.
When members of Ohio’s statehouse violate the constitution five times, do we have a democracy? Our statehouse is not a democracy: it is a laboratory of autocracy. We need to fight the battle to take back our democracy in Ohio. Unfortunately, the Ohio Democratic Party is fighting a different battle. They think that if we simply ask our democratic friends to vote, that they can win. That will not result in recapturing our democracy, it will result in continued voter suppression to the benefit of the American Autocrat party who loves Hungary’s Viktor Orban, where CPAC is holding its convention right now.
Orban repeated the lies of the Radical Right in his speech at CPAC: "Progressive liberals, neo-Marxists dazed by the woke dream, people financed by George Soros and promoters of open societies ... want to annihilate the Western way of life that you and we love so much," Orban told the conference. The republican party apparatchik is taking advice from a stone-cold authoritarian.
This is not a battle between Radical Right vs Never Trumpers. Even if trump is found guilty of anything by a court and put in jail, the Radical Right will continue their relentless attacks on Democracy. Unless and until dems can compete in every district in Ohio, the Radical Right will continue their violation of our constitution. Today, corrupt repubs are deeply embedded in statehouses and executive branches across the country, and they will keep doing what they have been doing for the past 10 years: violating our constitution and passing laws that a majority of Ohioans oppose.
In some cases those laws are personally offensive to most Ohioans. For example, the new trigger law to ban abortions from inception is supported by state Rep. Jean Schmidt who referred to sexual assault as an opportunity to have a baby. Schmidt’s logic in her speech is that the woman who was physically violated, assaulted, is already traumatized, so she might as well take the opportunity to suffer another 9 months of trauma and deliver that baby, then to stay traumatized for the rest of her life. After claiming such a reprehensible, offensive position, Rep. Jean Schmidt should correctly be relegated to the dustbin of politics.
The combination of all of Ohio’s gun laws are in the 10% universe of voter opinions. Ohio’s statehouse has legislated as many deaths as they possibly can with “stand your ground,” no permit requirements, no educational requirements, free concealed and open carry, no limit on magazine capacity, no background check at gun shows, no requirement to secure weapons from children, and no insurance requirement. When combined with the persistent, constant stoking of racial and ethnic hatred from repub leadership and their faux news mouthpieces, labels like shithole countries, promotion of “replacement” theory, the never-ending claims that somehow, someone will come knocking on your door demanding that you hand over your guns, things will not end well.
What can we do? First, if we give them a pass, that is our fault. No repub candidate should run unopposed. Even in a heavily repub district, a dem opponent should be supported by individuals and by the dem party. We can’t wait until November: the fight is happening today.
When you find a centrist republican candidate in a primary against a Radical Right candidate, support that centrist. Look no further than the Ohio repub party candidate for Senate.
Register voters everywhere. Everyone has a footprint: use it to register voters, fill out absentee ballot applications. If you own a business, if you support a not-for-profit, if you are recruiting at a job fair: have some voter registration forms for people to fill out. Include addressed and stamped envelopes to send it in. The registration form can be downloaded from https://www.ohiosos.gov/globalassets/elections/forms/vr_form_04-2015.pdf. You must register or update your voter registration no later than 30 days prior to an election. Upcoming voter registration deadlines:
· July 5, 2022 for the August 2, 2022 Special Election
· October 11, 2022 for the November 8, 2022 General Election
Stacy Abrams is and has been a very effective candidate, but she needs every Democrat to support her efforts in every state. And there is no next Barack Obama, so stop hoping for some charismatic leader to lead us to the promised land: we cannot wait for the next campaign.
Today we have a massive accountability crisis. If lawbreakers get away with violating the constitution five times, our democracy is gone. The Ohio Supreme Court cannot allow the federal court to force an unconstitutional map.
Dereliction of duty is a crime in the State of Ohio, and our Redistricting Commission is breaking this law. Huffman is guilty of misconduct in office.
§ 606.20 INTERFERING WITH CIVIL RIGHTS.
(A) No public servant, under color of his or her office, employment, or authority, shall knowingly deprive, conspire or attempt to deprive any person of a constitutional or statutory right. https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/reading/latest/reading_oh/0-0-0-54647
If those lawbreakers are unaccounted, they will continue to break the law. Are you for democracy or not?