Another fine piece by Jan Resseger about the sorry state of politics in Ohio, where the Legislature ignores pressing problems, but passes bills for spite and political gain.
She begins:
In its legislative update last Friday, Honesty for Ohio Education reported: “It was an appalling and heartbreaking week in the Statehouse as Ohio legislators passed two bills to arm school personnel and ban transgender girls in female sports, and held hearings for bills censoring education about race, sexuality, and gender and banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors.”
The Plain Dealer’s Laura Hancock explains how, without a hearing, the House banned transgender girls from female sports when legislators added the amendment to another bill: “The Ohio House passed a bill shortly before midnight Wednesday, the first day of Pride Month, with an amendment to ban transgender girls and women from playing high school and college women’s sports… As originally introduced, HB 151 would change the Ohio Resident Educator Program, which assists new teachers with mentoring and professional development as they begin their careers… But on the Ohio House floor late Wednesday night, Rep. Jena Powell, a Darke County Republican, offered an amendment to the bill, which a majority of the house accepted…. House Bill 151 passed 56 to 28 with Democrats voting in opposition. It now heads to the Ohio Senate, which is in summer recess and won’t return until the fall.”
A big part of our problem in Ohio is a long run of gerrymandering—leaving both chambers of our state legislature with huge Republican supermajorities. A committee of legislators from House and Senate were charged to create fair and balanced legislative district maps. The Ohio Redistricting Commission spent the winter and spring redrawing the maps, which were rejected five times by the Ohio Supreme Courtbecause a Court majority found the new maps gerrymandered to favor the election of Republicans. At the end of May, however, a federal district court ruled that the state must end the battle over gerrymandering by using maps—for this year’s August primary and the November general election—which were rejected twice in the spring by the state’s supreme court because they favor Republican candidates.
Citizens in a democracy are not supposed to be utterly powerless, but that is how it feels right now in Ohio.
The legislature also passed bills to increase school privatization, despite the woeful performance of charter schools and vouchers. The 90% of students in public schools will suffer so that the failing charter schools and vouchers may thrive, at least financially.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amul Thapar, one of the Trump judges who made the federal decision about the maps was the subject of a 2017 interview question from Hugh Hewitt to Leonard Leo. Leo’s introduction to his answer explaining why Amul Thapar went first, “It’s been a very, I think, fruitful process.”
The other Trump-appointed judge, Benjamin J. Beaton in the maps case, was asked during his confirmation hearing (2020) about what he wrote in 2001, “you wrote, ‘the most glaring racial problem in America is not racial profiling… but rather affirmative action.’ ” Beaton cited the harm that white people suffer from affirmative action.
Beaton’s answers were consistent with the talking points of conservatives including his comments about Roe as settled law.
Another great piece from the brilliant and compassionate Jan Resseger. Her essays are always well researched, well written, important! Thank you, Ms. Resseger, and thank you, Diane, for sharing her work! You totally rock, both of you!
Agree.
All we have to do is look at Ohio’s elected government for the answer.
Every major state office is controlled by the Fascist Republican Party (FRP).
The state senate is 24FRPs vs 8Ds.
The state house is 64FRPs vs 35Ds.
The Ohio Supreme Court is 4FRPs vs 3Ds.
This is what doesn’t make sense: Party affiliation among adults in Ohio according to PEW Research.
42% FRP
40% Democrats
18% do not lean one way or the other according to PEW. However, the results of the 2020 election apparently reveals that many of the no-lean 18% lied to PEW Research and/or were easily manipulated by the FRPs propaganda machine.
Donald Trump won that state with 53.3% of the vote. Biden had 45.3%.
To understand the conservative political forces and how they work, a read of the Wikipedia entry for Hugh Hewitt (Republican, raised Catholic in Ohio) is helpful. There’s a review of Hewitt’s motivation in his support for Trump, following his prior, fierce criticism of him.
On June 8, after the spate of election wins on the GOP platform, God, babies, guns and after the SCOTUS Roe opinion was leaked, Hewitt’s view was posted in WaPo. “Religion is not over powering our politics.” Hewitt, also, repeated the muddied waters’ refrain, “Too often, we over generalize-currently the fashion is to call any Christian who is not a Democrat, a ‘Christian nationalist.’ ” In contrast to Hewitt’s dismissals, efforts are flourishing that overturn separation of church and state, that get more tax money for conservative churches (Catholic organizations are already the 3rd largest U.S. employer) and, that undermine humanitarian causes like the social safety nets.
Hewitt is one of the faces of a campaign that seeks to keep religion out of the Democrats’ political messaging while an alliance that includes powerful conservative Catholics, for example, Leonard Leo, propel us towards theocracy which is synonymous with colonialism, men over women, straights over gays and majority religion over minority religion.
Hewitt should not be believed any more than the others who selectively identify only the weaker link (non-Catholic Christian nationalists) among the GOP axis and who pretend that huge inroads haven’t been made against our secular nation and against equal rights.
Given Hugh Hewitt’s history, the fact that WaPo posts his opinion, speaks volumes about press in the U.S. and whether they have an agenda that thwarts democratic governance.
Jan, As usual you nailed it.. The will of the people is of no concern to this Republican controlled Legislature, only their self interests. People need to get to the polls and VOTE them OUT of OFFICE
By the way, banning transgender girls from boys sports without banning transgender boys from girls sports is a Title IX violation. But since our public officials and offices are all for sale, there are really no laws.
&, also, didn’t Mercedes Schneider post here the other day that the Ohio legislature voted to arm teachers & school personnel?
PLEASE vote all of your horrible legislators OUT!