boutons_deux
01-19-2017, 05:52 AM
The Ohio legislature’s lame duck session that ended in the wee hours of December 9, 2016, while most of the Buckeye State slept, was a multi-front legislative attack on progressive interests:
Two abortion bans,
a “guns everywhere” bill,
a prohibition on localities setting their own minimum wages, plus
a freeze on renewable energy incentives.
The bonanza of far-right bills demonstrated what “emboldened” Republican legislators will attempt with solid majorities in the state legislature,
Republican John Kasich in the governor’s mansion, and members of the GOP in the
offices of secretary of state,
attorney general,
state auditor, and
state treasurer.
The extreme-right maneuvering in Columbus wasn’t a sign that Ohioans have all gone Tea Party — nor should it cause progressives elsewhere to see it as a state in Red Shift. It was a warning shot.
The changing terrain in Ohio’s political turf war is a result of gerrymandering (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/public/2015/election/ohio-state-issue-1-redistricting.html) so severe at the congressional level over the last two elections that
Republicans have won 75 percent of seats with only 55 percent of the vote.
In the recently concluded 2016 lame duck session, Republicans held over 60 percent of state House seats and nearly 70 percent of the state Senate;
now Republicans have a two-thirds majority in the House and 73 percent in the Senate.
Ohio legislators pushed forward with policies supported by conservative groups including
Faith2Action,
Ohio Right to Life,
Buckeye Firearms Association,
the National Rifle Association, and
the corporate interests of state utilities and
restaurant owners associations.
The concealed-carry, “guns everywhere” (http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/ohio-senate-oks-concealed-guns-government-buildings-colleges/O0lWZAWC5udOuhCVaKHo2O/) bill will allow people to carry concealed, loaded guns into day-care centers, college campuses, libraries, city halls, and public areas of airports.
bans local governments from setting a local minimum wage or any local employer policies — from regulating the amount of notice an employer must give his or her employees concerning change in work schedules (an apparent response to Youngstown’s proposed “Part-Time Bill of Rights”), to family leave that differs from the statewide policies.
through an effort dubbed
REDMAP (Redistricting Majority Project), the GOP invested heavily in state legislative elections and governor’s races after the 2008 election in order to control state and congressional redistricting in 2011, following the 2010 census.
After new districts were drawn by GOP leaders, Ohio’s congressional map went from a pretty even red-and-blue split, with Democratic districts mostly to the east and Republican primarily to the west with mix-matched pockets of opposition on either side, to a map that’s almost entirely saturated in red,
“We have a very outsized Republican majority in the state legislature in both houses, and in our congressional delegation, and I just think that sooner or later that’s going to come back to bite people, because this isn't a state that really endorses a far-right set of policies.”
the NRA’s campaign to nationalize concealed carry with the help of Republican majorities in Congress and an NRA-friendly Trump.
The GOP also aims (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/gop-plans-to-defund-planned-parenthood-231905) to completely defund Planned Parenthood.
On the environmental front, previous congressional efforts to slash EPA funding (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/14/13582562/trump-gop-climate-environmental-policy) will now be matched with a president-elect who promised to slash climate change regulations and sever treaties designed to coordinate action on things like greenhouse gas emission reductions.
The prospect of a President Donald Trump vetoing extreme legislation is even less likely than a veto from a career politician like Kasich.
In Ohio and across the country, Americans may spend the next few years differentiating between these shades of red. What remains clear is that the difficult, necessary debate of a democracy requires that all voices be heard and that all sides have a chance to choose representatives that reflect their interests. Ohio’s extremist legislature is not an anomaly, but a case study in national dysfunction and a harbinger of difficulties to come.
http://prospect.org/article/stacked-deck
Repugs FUCKING America into unfuckability, handing the corporatocracy and Christian Taliban every fucking destructive law, regulation that they paid for.
Anything in the Ohio Repug scorched-earth campaign that is actually For The People?
Expect the same fucking over from Trash, Congress, and 5-4 extreme right wing SCOTUS.
Two abortion bans,
a “guns everywhere” bill,
a prohibition on localities setting their own minimum wages, plus
a freeze on renewable energy incentives.
The bonanza of far-right bills demonstrated what “emboldened” Republican legislators will attempt with solid majorities in the state legislature,
Republican John Kasich in the governor’s mansion, and members of the GOP in the
offices of secretary of state,
attorney general,
state auditor, and
state treasurer.
The extreme-right maneuvering in Columbus wasn’t a sign that Ohioans have all gone Tea Party — nor should it cause progressives elsewhere to see it as a state in Red Shift. It was a warning shot.
The changing terrain in Ohio’s political turf war is a result of gerrymandering (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/public/2015/election/ohio-state-issue-1-redistricting.html) so severe at the congressional level over the last two elections that
Republicans have won 75 percent of seats with only 55 percent of the vote.
In the recently concluded 2016 lame duck session, Republicans held over 60 percent of state House seats and nearly 70 percent of the state Senate;
now Republicans have a two-thirds majority in the House and 73 percent in the Senate.
Ohio legislators pushed forward with policies supported by conservative groups including
Faith2Action,
Ohio Right to Life,
Buckeye Firearms Association,
the National Rifle Association, and
the corporate interests of state utilities and
restaurant owners associations.
The concealed-carry, “guns everywhere” (http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/ohio-senate-oks-concealed-guns-government-buildings-colleges/O0lWZAWC5udOuhCVaKHo2O/) bill will allow people to carry concealed, loaded guns into day-care centers, college campuses, libraries, city halls, and public areas of airports.
bans local governments from setting a local minimum wage or any local employer policies — from regulating the amount of notice an employer must give his or her employees concerning change in work schedules (an apparent response to Youngstown’s proposed “Part-Time Bill of Rights”), to family leave that differs from the statewide policies.
through an effort dubbed
REDMAP (Redistricting Majority Project), the GOP invested heavily in state legislative elections and governor’s races after the 2008 election in order to control state and congressional redistricting in 2011, following the 2010 census.
After new districts were drawn by GOP leaders, Ohio’s congressional map went from a pretty even red-and-blue split, with Democratic districts mostly to the east and Republican primarily to the west with mix-matched pockets of opposition on either side, to a map that’s almost entirely saturated in red,
“We have a very outsized Republican majority in the state legislature in both houses, and in our congressional delegation, and I just think that sooner or later that’s going to come back to bite people, because this isn't a state that really endorses a far-right set of policies.”
the NRA’s campaign to nationalize concealed carry with the help of Republican majorities in Congress and an NRA-friendly Trump.
The GOP also aims (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/gop-plans-to-defund-planned-parenthood-231905) to completely defund Planned Parenthood.
On the environmental front, previous congressional efforts to slash EPA funding (http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/14/13582562/trump-gop-climate-environmental-policy) will now be matched with a president-elect who promised to slash climate change regulations and sever treaties designed to coordinate action on things like greenhouse gas emission reductions.
The prospect of a President Donald Trump vetoing extreme legislation is even less likely than a veto from a career politician like Kasich.
In Ohio and across the country, Americans may spend the next few years differentiating between these shades of red. What remains clear is that the difficult, necessary debate of a democracy requires that all voices be heard and that all sides have a chance to choose representatives that reflect their interests. Ohio’s extremist legislature is not an anomaly, but a case study in national dysfunction and a harbinger of difficulties to come.
http://prospect.org/article/stacked-deck
Repugs FUCKING America into unfuckability, handing the corporatocracy and Christian Taliban every fucking destructive law, regulation that they paid for.
Anything in the Ohio Repug scorched-earth campaign that is actually For The People?
Expect the same fucking over from Trash, Congress, and 5-4 extreme right wing SCOTUS.