Ohio Settled Three Issues in Six Months and Enlarged the Political Narrative. Maybe.
Can we do something more important now?
Three cultural issues, all of which have been used by the two legacy political parties to distract, divide and rule, are no longer on the table in Ohio.
Two of them were handled last summer. First, Ohioans enshrined all citizens’ rights to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. Abortion is a decision between a woman, her family, her doctor and whoever else she decides to talk to about it. It’s none of the government’s business, not in Ohio.
It’s none of the public’s business for that matter.
At the same time, Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to legalize recreational marijuana for all citizens 21 and over. The prevailing sentiment here is that it’s really none of the government’s business what you decide to put in your own body, and pot’s harmless anyway, so let’s stop imprisoning people for this at taxpayer expense and for private profit.
Then, just this week, the Ohio House of Representatives overrode Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill banning all transgender care for children, and all transwomen from girls’ and women’s sports. The Senate will override it as well.
The message of the state legislature here, and one supported by a large majority of Ohioans, is that you can do whatever you want to your own body after you’re an adult, but if a child doesn’t have the legal maturity to sign a contract, open a bank account, join the military, get married, get a credit card, etcetera, then a child sure as shit doesn’t have the legal maturity to decide to stop puberty, become permanently sterile, and opt for elective plastic surgery.
And banning narcissistic boys, not to mention their parents who encourage them, who couldn’t win the gold or make the team as boys from using their biological male physiques to dominate girls in sports sounds both feminist and fair to me, most Ohioans, and I’m pretty sure most Americans.
The message of Democratic legislators who spoke in opposition didn’t help their cause. Accusing Republicans of murdering children by passing this legislation is as ridiculous as saying the Israelis are not mass murdering women and children in Gaza.
Whatever, that issue is done here.
Now, with all of that distractive stuff out of the way, maybe Ohioans can focus on things that really matter and have been neglected for far too long, like infrastructure and homelessness and East Palestine and hunger and living wages and public education and health care and lots of Much More Important Stuff like maybe advocating for a sane and rational foreign policy. Stuff that might make the established oligarchy very, very nervous.
Or not. This is Ohio, after all, but I’m proud of my adopted state for finally getting around to kicking some totally unproductive political bullshit to the curb once and for all.
Thank you for reading, good night, and good luck.
Hooray for Ohio! Woo hoo!
Well done!