Weak Leadership Results In Big Left-Wing Wins In Ohio

Its too bad talented politicians like J.D. Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy keep their eyes focused on Washington. D.C., as their home state dies. Ohio needs a Reagan, but all it gets are fiddling Neros.

Do you ever wonder how it is that a +8 Donald Trump Republican trifecta red state like Ohio continually passes left-wing “vice” laws? Maybe you are comfy in your rural or suburban home far removed or unaffected by the “vice” laws and wholly focused on federal elections, so don’t really care about casinos, pot dispensaries, or abortion clinics. I’d respectfully suggest to you that you SHOULD care about those laws that don’t really impact you because the same progressive groups that get those laws passed also get laws passed that DO impact you. 

For example, the failure to ratify the public sector collective bargaining reforms in 2013 is directly tied to why your property taxes are going through the roof. School property taxes make up the vast majority of your annual property tax bill. In most school districts, 90% or more of the operating budget goes to personnel costs like salaries, healthcare, and pensions. Without public sector collective bargaining reform, school boards and teachers’ unions keep agreeing to higher pay and more generous benefits. You may not have gotten a raise over the last few years, but you can take it to the bank that administrators, teachers, and staff at your local school district got nice increases every year. Maybe you think elementary school gym teachers should make $100,000+ and as much or more than high school physics or calculus teachers, with all of them retiring in their mid-50s with multi-million dollar government pensions and healthcare, so you are fine paying an ever-increasing property tax bill. Many people, however, live on fixed incomes or have lost ground due to inflation over the last few years, so higher and higher property taxes crushes them.

One of the biggest reasons why the Left keeps winning ballot measures in Ohio is because Ohio is deeply infected with weak political leadership. That leadership is comprised of Establishment career politicians who truly only care about accumulating power for their own promotion and getting credit towards a gold-plated government pension. For them, why take risks by going bold. Nibbling on the margins is far safer (but terrible for Ohio, its citizens, and their businesses). After all, how else can you explain away the fact that a Republican supermajority trifecta government hasn’t passed a single piece of legislation in years that pushes Ohio to the front of the pack on any issue? Nero may have fiddled as Rome burnt down, but at least he picked up an instrument to make music. Ohio Republicans literally do nothing year-after-year on the major issues that require bold ideas as Ohio burns and hollows into a dead state walking. Why do these men and women work so hard to get elected only to sit on their hands once in office (and collect big paychecks, free healthcare, and pension credits)? It is like Joe Burrow reaching the pinnacle of pro football only to take a knee every time he gets the ball.

Why do YOU continue to tolerate this type of do nothingness?

At any rate, here are four key ballot initiatives won by the Left and its progressive allies over the last fourteen years (i.e., more gasoline onto Ohio’s funeral pyre):

1. Gambling (2009)

Ohioans legalized casinos in four locations in 2009. After being elected governor in 2010, John Kasich expanded gambling to seven more “racinos” (i.e., race tracks that he expanded with casinos) making sure all Ohioans could lose their weekly paychecks playing games in which the House always wins. While they can’t be bothered with eliminating the state income tax, enacting right-to-work, repealing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, or building a world class airport, the Ohio General Assembly is currently looking to expand gambling even more in 2025. “[A]ccording to estimates by the American Gaming Association, commercial casinos, retail sports betting and mobile sports betting support nearly 34,000 jobs, with an annual tax impact of more than $1 billion in Ohio.” It is that last part that matters most to our elected officials—they want to skim more tax money from people destroying their lives with gambling to fund bigger state government. Lovely, huh?

2. Collective Bargaining (2011)

Due to strategic incompetence married with a tarnished governor, Ohioans passed a veto referendum repealing public sector collective bargaining reform in 2011. Unlike in Wisconsin, the Ohio General Assembly included firefighters and police officers in its collective bargaining law. That allowed Big Labor to run ads with firefighters running into burning building to save kids, which appealed to people’s emotional heartstrings. Kasich also was caught on camera calling a police officer who pulled him over for failing to move over for an ambulance an  “idiot,” thereby tarnishing his credibility to defend the reforms. With reform dead, public sector unions had nothing keeping them from getting big contracts out of pliant state government, school boards, city councils, and county commissions.

3. Marijuana Legalization (2023)

With virtually no opposition from the Right, the Left rolled through pot legalization last year so that Ohio could become more like Oregon and Colorado where the young flock for drugs, schizophrenics walk through streets yelling at imaginary people, and drug cartels set-up legal dispensaries through which they launder illegal drug money. The effects of pot use take longer to see than fentanyl, but, as a gateway drug, you’ll see more Ohioans sounding like Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, greater usage of harder drugs, and far higher mental health issues. 

Take a look at the maps below showing where pot dispensaries are located around Ohio and the Greater Columbus Area. Notice anything interesting about the locations of the pot dispensaries in the Greater Columbus Area? Any in Dublin? Worthington? New Albany? Upper Arlington? Powell? Nope. All the pot dispensaries are located outside of the wealthy suburbs. In most cases, the pot dispensaries are located in what sociologists call “food deserts”—places under served by grocery stores with healthy food. If the map was color-coded by poverty levels, you’d likely see a high correlation between pot dispensary locations and high poverty rates. So, Ohio has made it easy for its most vulnerable populations to gamble and do drugs (the poor also are the top users of the state lottery). It is no wonder that nearly 700,000 Ohioans have enrolled in Medicaid since Kasich expanded it under Obamacare in 2013, especially given the steadily declining growth of Ohio's private sector over the last decade. 

4. Unlimited Abortion (2023)

The greatest example of the two sides to Ohio is the unlimited abortion measure passed in 2023. Most Americans cannot fathom how a fairly red state also has one of the most radical abortion measures in America (heck, the world). It is precisely what happens when the toxic mix of left-wing out-of-state deep pockets and weak Republican political leadership face off. 

In stark contrast to the four above examples is the successful passage of the Healthcare Freedom Act in 2011. That measure had NO SUPPORT from Establishment Republicans; rather, it was entirely led by non-political leaders like Chris Littleton who built support from the grassroots up. The very same Ohioans who killed collective bargaining reform overwhelmingly passed this pro-freedom measure on the same ballot. Sadly, the infrastructure Littleton and his cohorts built for this measure was allowed to wither away and, in some cases, became a permanent pipeline for grifters and bloviators to try to feather their own nests. The Republican Establishment hated what Littleton et al. had built, so never embraced the machine it could have used for greater wins.

This isn’t the end of the story, my friends. Coming soon to a ballot near you will be redistricting reform, a minimum wage increase, and other left-wing proposals like limiting the immunity for police officers. The Republican Establishment will use these measures to get more money from big donors, but you can’t fix what is broken. The same Establishment career politicians will hire the same consultants and media hacks to run a "rinse and repeat” ballot system that hasn’t worked yet. Thus, Ohio soon will have a “nonpartisan” commission drawing political boundaries so more left-wingers win, a minimum wage law like the one in California that crushes small businesses, and other left-wing laws that eventually turn Ohio from red to blue, as more Ohioans from the Right migrate to saner places like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee.

It really is too bad that talented politicians like J.D. Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy keep their eyes focused on Washington. D.C., as their home state withers on the vine due to talentless career politicians like Mike DeWine and Jon Husted. There is a reason Ronald Reagan spent two terms as Governor fixing California before turning his eye towards The White House. Ohio needs a Reagan, but all it gets are fiddling Neros.