What's the issue? Let me 'splain. A couple years ago, coming out of the lockdowns when the School Board Battles were taking off, a bunch of transgender activists went to our statehouse and tried to play the 'save our trans kids from parents' card. The local press jumped on the story and ran with it in the same way: if we let parents interfere, then what choice will our children have but to kill themselves? And we can't have that!
Fortunately, a GOP dominated state government didn't let it see the light of day. And in the midterms, when the GOP underperformed in several states, Ohio gushed red over almost the entire state in a conservative tsunami. Same as with Florida, where the issue of sexing up our kids, surgically altering them, and keeping parents in the street seem to be winning issues for Republicans.
Well, after that the SCOTUS dropped the Roe bomb and ushered in the new Terror - at least to hear the Left. Sadly, the Pro-Life movement seemed content with resting on its laurels for a while as the pro-abortion rights movement prepared to storm the beaches. The first big warning shot came in Kansas when Kansas voters struck down a much underreported attempt to enshrine pro-life policies in the Kansas constitution.
Being Buckeyes, we realized the same can't happen here. First, as soon as the abortion rights movement began pushing an amendment for abortion, conservatives effectively tied it to the same push we saw with the transgender activists only months earlier. Which isn't altogether unfair if you think on it. Second, the GOP moved to change our constitution to make it harder to amend the constitution in the first place. Finally we made darn sure to get the word out, even if Issue 1 itself was a little late in the promoting.
What is Issue 1? Right now, Ohio is one of the few states where the state constitution can be amended with a vote of 50% plus 1 on citizen and legislature-initiated referendums. Plus, currently to get an amendment push going, you need only obtain signatures from half of Ohio's counties. This issue, Issue 1, would require a 60% vote to amend the constitution, and would require signatures from all 88 counties in order to get the proposal to move forward.
Naturally, its' really about abortion, transgender activism, parent's rights, and basically the growing rift between the Left's vision for America and those who don't accept that vision. The pro-abortion movement already has an amendment enshrining abortion rights on the November ballot. What will be required to get the constitution amended will therefore depend on what happens today.
For me it's very simple. Do we want pagan America, where life is precious or dirt cheap when certain people at certain times decide so? Or is life precious and we work in our state's priorities accordingly? Obviously, no matter how people articulate it, they get this is important. That's why for the first time since we've been voting in our cavernous poling place we had to wait in line in the middle of the day. We'll see.
Not even just that, but I've been seeing some positive things about JD Vance too.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up, Ohio. Who knew one day that you might be this nation's beacon of hope.
Well it didn't work. Part of the problem was the press not calling the No Vote side out for the obvious duplicity of 'they admit it's just all about abortion' as the No Vote movement made it all about abortion. But blame must fall on the Right. Yes, they jumped in on this and got it on the ballot fairly quickly. But then they coasted for several months while the No Voters were pounding the pavement. We were approached more than once in parking lots by people wanting us to vote no, while we heard nothing from the Yes Vote side. It wasn't until about two months ago before they began running serious attempts to get the Yes vote out, and by then the No Votes had been out, had commercials, had signs in yards, and already had claimed the narrative (it's an attack on our one man, one vote democracy). I find playing catch up is a tough way to win.
DeleteYou're right and it's been commented on more than once by several different people is that the challenge is that the Right actually lives life. They have more things to do than just politics - they have jobs, friends and family. For the Left, politics is their life. They have nothing else and so devote their entire time and energy to the cause.
DeleteSo what can you do? You want to forfeit a night with your boys to go canvasing a neighborhood, stuff envelopes, study spreadsheets, etc? I don't blame your choice at all.
It's hard to be in a constant state of fight. And the Left has exactly 0 scruples or the yoke of morality that tells one lying is wrong. For them the end justifies the means, and unfortunately, they also have the media spin machine (*cough*cough*...Pravda) churning out their talking points so their position looks stronger than it actually is most likely on the ground. But even then, it's framed in such a way that makes you look like an ignorant rube if you don't accept this line of thought and the social pressure to not speak out against it becomes very great. Though, the good Lord did say that the children of this world are savvier than the children of light...
DeleteUnfortunately, it seems we are already functionally pagan in this country.
Oh, the modern left has thrown all concepts of principles out the window. They almost seem to take great pride in saying 'X is true now because it's convenient, in five minutes it won't be when that is convenient', knowing there is nothing to call them out. Educators and academics, journalists, even religious leaders will stand by or join in. That makes it tough. As Nate said, many people are just working and getting on, which is why mobilizing them is tough. But when they see ads that say 'Issue 1 will take away your voting rights', that's a tough hill to climb to convince the great disinterested that this isn't the case. It's a case where we learn from Bill Clinton - you get out ahead of something, you don't wait to react (something I've learned in life as well).
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