Fascism Much?

Following decisive wins for abortion rights and marijuana legalization in referenda last week, the Republican and Gerrymander dominated state legislature promptly set about attempting to subvert the will of the people.

I'm not sure how you address the issue of politicians have no respect for the Democratic process.

The alternative to ballots is ……… Not pretty:

Ohio voters just took firm positions on abortion and reproductive rights and adult-use recreational marijuana Tuesday, but gerrymandered Ohio lawmakers are already planning to flout, ignore, challenge, and abuse the voters’ wishes. This is what gerrymandering brings. This is why it’s a fundamental poison in the lifeblood of our republic.

Mere hours after Ohio voters passed the Issue 1 reproductive rights amendment with 56.62%, according to unofficial results, and the Issue 2 recreational marijuana law with 57% (both getting nearly 2.2 million votes), Ohio Republican legislative leaders signaled they would not respect the will of the people.

“This isn’t the end,” Republican Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman said about Issue 1. “It is really just the beginning of a revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1.”

On Issue 2, Huffman has a host of changes to the law he says he wants to make, which gerrymandered lawmakers can do because Issue 2 was an initiated statute, not an amendment. “The General Assembly may consider amending the statute to clarify the questionable language regarding limits for THC and tax rates as well as other parts of the statute,” Huffman said.

Republican Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens leveled similar warnings that lawmakers would not respect Tuesday’s election results. On Issue 2, Stephens said that the lawmakers should reallocate revenue from marijuana toward building jails and funding law enforcement. “Now is the time for the legislature to lead,” Stephens said.

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Just this year, these politicians implemented one of the most restrictive voter laws in the country. In 2022, they politicized our state supreme court by adding party labels, and this year they have proposed to do the same to our state board of education. They have also proposed to increase hyper-partisanship in Ohio by closing our primaries.

Ohio Republican politicians spent most of this year trying to attack Ohio majority authority over the constitution itself, and failed in August.

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On Issue 2, the lawmakers will likely go forward with whatever changes they’re determined to make in defiance of the voters, and DeWine will choose whether or not to sign those changes.

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Ohio lawmakers could try to legislate. They do have the power of action right now. They could try to legislate something that conforms to the fetal-viability-outside-the-uterus standards of the new amendment (around 24-26 weeks), or try to flout the amendment entirely. They seem to be indicating they want to bring yet another amendment on abortion rights to voters.

We already know that Ohio Republicans are relentlessly corrupt, and this is what drives a lot of their anti-Ohio actions.

They need to pander to the right wings, and stack elections, because otherwise, they cannot get on the graft gravy train.