4 ms·
Considering Ohio's former house speaker was just sentenced to 20 years in prison for energy-related bribes, you'd think the Ohio government would be more transp
by ssharp 3y ago
Considering Ohio's former house speaker was just sentenced to 20 years in prison for energy-related bribes, you'd think the Ohio government would be more transparent with its dealings.
Ohio's in a bad, but interesting, political situation. The state has clearly shifted red since the Obama elections but the sweeping 2010 election in favor of Republicans has turned the state into a gerrymandered mess. The state legislature is heavily tilted towards the Republicans and, as a result of Trump's popularity, they've become extremely MAGA. Meanwhile, you have a somewhat moderate (in comparison) Republican as governor, but he still supports the majority of these traditional conservative principles.
Since Ohio was a fairly moderate state for a long time, the MAGA legislature doesn't really align with voters' values, but there is a near zero chance of Republicans losing control due to the gerrymandered districts. All this is very unpopular. In fact, voters passed a bipartisan ballot initiative to help eliminate gerrymandered districts several years ago and it's been relatively useless as the districts were held up in court so long that they just defaulted to the previous districts in the last election.
As a result, Ohio has proactively utilized the citizen ballot initiative process to keep the legislature at bay. In August, Ohio struck down an attempt to increase the ballot initiative threshold to a 60% vote, keeping it as a simple majority. Last week, Ohio voters passed ballot initiatives to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio's constitution as well as legalize marijuana. Both these initiatives had a fairly large 55% win, indicating cross-party support, but both are something that would never have been done by the elected legislature.
- reducesuffering 3y agoOhio still had +8% (53-45) for Republicans in the last presidential election. You're acting like Democrat voters are a majority held back by the legislature, but the presidential election isn't affected by gerrymandering. All of their more recent elections had an even starker difference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Ohio_elections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Ohio_elections
- vkou 3y agoI will point out that while you can't gerrymander a state-wide race, if you gerrymander enough other races, you can both actively-and-illegally, and passively-and-legally suppress voter turnout among people opposed to single-party rule. But at this point, you are right - Ohio can safely be written off, like Florida.
- reducesuffering 3y agoFlorida isn't a write off, it had a 3.4% margin and is worth a fight for it's outsized electoral votes.
- gottorf 3y ago> Ohio can safely be written off, like Florida. So are you for or against single-party rule? The way you're putting this makes it clear that you think there is one right party to vote for.
- lotsofpulp 3y ago>But at this point, you are right - Ohio can safely be written off, like Florida. Legalizing cannabis and abortion choice in the most recent election clearly indicates otherwise.
- vkou 3y agoIf you ask an American whether or not they want a Democrat, or a Repulbican policy, Americans will overwhelmingly support the Democrat policies. ... And then they go to the polls and vote for Republicans who implement the exact opposite (Because they are only listening to their base, and their base is insane.)
- landemva 3y agoI am not in Ohio, though the Republicans I know who are <60 years old do support MJ decriminalization.
- ssharp 3y agoI don't think it does. Pre-Trump, Ohio clearly had a large share of traditional conservative voters and leaders. However, when Trump came in and captured a ton of rust-belt Democrat support for Republicans, a lot of those traditional values did not come with the new support. That, and an aging boomer population being replaced with Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z that hold much different beliefs on abortion and marijuana.
- ssharp 3y agoOhio is very clearly a red state these days. Once Trump came in, he captured a lot of blue-collar democrats and they are now fully Republican. The gerrymandering just tilts the scales significantly more to ever overcome that majority. There is a big difference between the 8% win in 2020 and the 66% Republican majority in the Ohio house and 79% Republican majority in the Ohio senate.
- nickthegreek 3y agoFYI, Ohio just put Abortion into their constitution and legalized weed weeks ago. So I wouldn't count it as 'Fully republican" just yet. Although if that +8 holds for the 2024 election, I would concede this point.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> Ohio is very clearly a red state these days Ohio’s margins are exceeded by its non-voters in multiples. (Half a million [1] versus three million.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_Ohio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidentia...
- specialist 3y agoHe's saying that Ohio's gerrymandering ensures that the hard right (MAGA) punches above its weight. He's saying that in Ohio, voters are politically closer to Kasich whereas the legislature is still firmly Householder.
- FireBeyond 3y ago> and it's been relatively useless as the districts were held up in court so long that they just defaulted to the previous districts in the last election. Accurate, but additional context - the courts ruled that the districts did actually have to be remapped, but the Republicans in power just got stubborn and said "make us. make us. make us", i.e. it's not undecided, the politicians are just playing chicken with the court.
- archagon 3y agoStubborn? I’d say seditious.
- gr1zzlybe4r 3y agoThe more I learn about stuff like this, which happens in many other places at either the same or different levels of government, the more I believe that democracy in the United States is effectively a sham.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Pigalowda 3y agoYea when republicans lose or have an outcome they don’t like they call democracy a sham as well.