Posts

The more important lesson out of Ohio

  The more important lesson out of Ohio American commentators have become masters at the art of “narrative building.” No matter the situation, no matter the facts, they have a unique ability to take a story and fit it into one of our preconceived notions of how the world works. A quick scroll online will find a finely produced editorial or podcast segment on any issue. In Ohio, we’ve witnessed this finely tuned skill at work after the Aug. 8 election on Issue 1. This proposed constitutional amendment would have elevated the threshold to amend our state constitution to 60%. The rationale for this proposal was straightforward: Ohio was one of 10 states allowing its constitution to be amended via citizen-initiated petitions with only a 50% vote. This has led to a bloated state constitution packed with special-interest political agendas. The same document that safeguards free speech and religious liberty also has the specific land plots of the location of the “Toledo Hollywood Casino” ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unsurprisingly, after the loss of Issue 1, the media, including friends on the right, jumped on this as an opportunity to opine about abortion politics.

  Unsurprisingly, after the loss of Issue 1, the media, including friends on the right, jumped on this as an opportunity to opine about abortion politics.  They used this as a microcosm of how the pro-life position is not a winner and is a political drain on the conservative movement. Yet, if any of these brilliant commentators had chosen to look at what happened in Ohio, they would have seen a very different, more interesting and important story. The reality was that the debate around elevating the threshold to amend the state constitution to 60% is a decades-old debate in Ohio. In fact, five years ago when this proposal was put forward, the resolution was co-sponsored by a Republican and a Democrat. The fundamental message of the “no” campaign on Aug. 8 had absolutely nothing to do with abortion. The name of the campaign was “One person/One vote.” They ran a very effective, if not manipulative, ad campaign targeted at core Republican and conservative voters, claiming this am...
Post a Comment
Read more