Issue 1 failed. Actually, it got crushed. Frank LaRose and Republicans did a fantastic job twisting and lying about the amendment’s purpose. I’m convinced that due to the intentionally confusing ballot language, some people voted “no” when they meant to vote “yes.” Who knows if it would have been enough to change the outcome? The result ensures that the GOP, with their majority on the Supreme Court, will continue to illegally gerrymander and hold veto-proof majorities in Columbus. Of all the election results, this is the one that felt like a gut punch. Democracy stinks when you’re on the losing side, and this smells like sewage.
Sherrod Brown loses: Brown has served the state admirably since 2006. But an avalanche of (effective) negative ads funded mainly by groups outside of Ohio was too much to overcome. (I love it when political parties scream about outside money and then take the cash when it benefits them.) Ohio isn’t red. It bleeds crimson. That’s great for 55% of the populace. The other 45% live in a state in which lawmakers spend their time trying to rig maps and disenfranchise them. It’s pathetic and sad.
Centerville levy passes: That’s terrific news. There was a lot of misinformation (no surprise, huh?) about the school district and how it spends its money threatened to sink the levy request for a fourth time. In the end, 54% voted for the schools and the children. Centerville invests in itself when it invests in education.
Democrats are dead, for now. The broken Democrat brand was exposed in Ohio and across the country and needs a reset. The progressive left had its moments, but that moment’s gone as this election shows the country moving center-right. That’s going to anger the far left, but their positions — no IDs to vote, the phase-out of oil and gas use, increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations — are out of the mainstream. These positions will need to be moderated if the Democrats hope to compete.
Trump wins: The never-Trumpers focused on his rhetoric and missed a key point that I mentioned back in July and on the political analyst Mark Halperin’s 2waytvapp last week. Trump has built the most wide-ranging coalition of any Republican presidential candidate ever. He’s faced 91 felony charges, was found guilty in a hush-money case involving an adult film actress, and had a role in an insurrection. None of that mattered because voters saw the relentless attacks against Trump as the weaponization of the Justice Department supported by a compliant media. Voters, in some cases, broke for Trump as a protest vote against an out-of-touch Democratic party that moved too far left, with all-gender bathrooms, woke attempts at restricting speech, and transgender rights a bridge too far for many.
My liberal friends spent Wednesday devastated — and that’s not too strong — fretful of an authoritarian Trump using the Presidency as a cudgel to bludgeon his enemies and reshape America into a society that values right-leaning causes and supports his white working-class voters over those of color. I don’t see Trump forsaking the people who put him in office, and that includes the Black males (12-15%) and Hispanics (40% or more) who voted for him.
While the blues agonize over the results and what’s to come, Halperin has a more optimistic view. He wrote, in his subscription-based and daily newsletter, the Wide World of News Concierge Coverage: “Trump’s government will be filled with a lot of senior officials who will reassure Wall Street, foreign capitals, and a lot of Trump haters (at least the ones with open minds).”
Let’s hope.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
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