Comment of the Day

Someone from Ohio responded to my earlier post about Reform Ohio Now and gave a good response as to why so few Republicans might be part of this process.

You're correct that the Ohio group is comprised of Dems and left-leaning groups, but not for lack of trying to reach across the aisle. It is truly a nonpartisan issue, or at least should be approached that way by both sides. The problem in Ohio is that the GOP has controlled the politics in the state for, what, about thirty years, and they are NOT inclined to change the method for redistricting that could in any way dilute their powerbase. The more noncompetitive the districts, the happier they are. They are fighting tooth and nail against Reform Ohio Now. But the reason that Reform Ohio Now's initiative will be placed on the ballot is because over 550,000 Ohioans are tired of the corruption, and the only way to get the crooks out of power is to change the makeup of the districts. Could any reasonable individual for one second believe that if the Republicans in power in Columbus and D.C. were serving their Ohio constituents as they deserve to be served Reform Ohio Now could have signed up over 200,000 voters more than they needed to get the initiative on the ballot? What their success tells me is that the voters in Ohio are fed up and refuse to sit back any longer while more corrupted politicians rape and pillage the state's treasury.

It is a nationwide movement. It will eventually affect both Dem and GOP districts so that Republican voters in Dem-locked districts will have a chance to elect Republicans and vice versa. That doesn't bother me one bit, even though I am a Green. We absolutely need both progressives and conservatives to make our government work at all levels; the evidence is plainly in front of our faces as to what happens when one ideology controls all branches of government. We get an agenda that is heavily weighted toward corporate interests at the expense of working men and women and families. We get pork-heavy transportation and energy bills instead of affordable healthcare and drugs or good environmental stewardship. We get a morally bankrupt bankruptcy bill that waives credit card interest cellings (in the fine print) and disallows exemptions to those who have catastrophic healthcare expenses or lose their jobs to outsourcing.

And I could go on and on, but the point I'm making is if the Republicans don't want to join the Reform Ohio Now coalition, then redistricting reform will necessarily have to proceed without them, and they may find themselves in an untenable situation similar to that of the Iraqi Sunnis. They boycotted the "election," and it did them a whole lot of good, right? That last was a rather facetious rhetorical question, but it points out the utter absurdity of the Republicans in Ohio fighting constructive reform. I suspect their recalcitrance will come back and bite them on the ass.

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Posted by SherAn

I guess my comment is to reiterate something Jeremy over at Charging RINO has been saying: we need more Republicans speaking out against corruption. I know there have to be reform-minded, independent Republicans in Ohio. If you want change, get involved and stop standing on the sidelines.