Ohio voters just took firm positions on abortion and reproductive rights and adult-use recreational marijuana Tuesday, but gerrymandered Ohio lawmakers are already planning to flout, ignore, challenge, and abuse the voters’ wishes. This is what gerrymandering brings. This is why it’s a fundamental poison in the lifeblood of our republic.
Mere hours after Ohio voters passed the Issue 1 reproductive rights amendment with 56.62%, according to unofficial results, and the Issue 2 recreational marijuana law with 57% (both getting nearly 2.2 million votes), Ohio Republican legislative leaders signaled they would not respect the will of the people.
Maybe this way the people learn that Republicans cannot be trusted with democratic decisions.
Maybe this way the people learn that Republicans cannot be trusted.
FTFY.
When I lived in Arizona, I tried my best to inform people EVERY TIME the state Republicans fought back against voter initiatives (which was nearly every time).
They don’t care. Arizonans even voted recently to make voter initiatives harder to pass
https://www.azcentral.com/elections/results/2022-11-08/state/arizona/
But at least they (barely) voted against the other bill Republicans put on the ballot: That their government be allowed to alter passed voter initiatives.
Fuck Republicans
Expecting republican voters to learn… I admire your optimism.
They have a reason to learn, and they have the chance to do so. Whether they take this chance is an entirely different question.
Like when the people of Florida clearly voted to restore voting rights to people who completed their time in the justice system, and Florida Republicans just said Nah. Fuck the Republicans.
Or when Utah voted to legalize Marijuana (against the Mormon Church’s wishes) and the Utah Republicans just said Nah.
Fascist gonna fascism.
Only if we let them. We all gotta vote or they’ll fascism all over the place.
I’m getting genuinely nervous that voting is not going to stop this one. With them lying and switching parties after being voted in, to the judicial system being completely corrupt and stacked, our window is closing fast. It needs to be legal to punch fascist in the face. Intolerance cannot be tolerated.
Isn’t this literally a post about how people voted and its going to be ignored anyway?
Yep, it is. That’s a nuance lost on the party soldiers itt though…
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How would you suggest we fix gerrymandering without voting?
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You talk a big talk but I doubt you’ll be out there in a armed mob.
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Organize it…you won’t though because you are some troll keyboard warrior who thinks they will walk up to a politicians house with a mob and pull them out and cut their head off and some how that will cause social change. If you think that do it, no one is stopping you
Don’t stop at voting. Volunteer to encourage others to vote. Get more involved in local politics. Run for local office.
I don’t not have the time to run but I know my city council woman and I’ve had her sign in my yard twice now. As well as the school board members. They all won reelection this past Tuesday too. I’ve been thinking about becoming a precinct captain but I’m already kind of stretched thin.
Yeah, that’s going well…
Your options are vote or give up and let them do whatever they want. You can be apathetic if you want but I’m not giving up.
These are not the only options. If the representatives don’t respect results of democratic vote, organize and go to the streets, protest, don’t let them think you don’t care!
Protesting without voting is just taking a loud walk. It’s easy for politicians to ignore you if you don’t ever show up at the polls. That would be like a bunch of people protesting outside a McDonald’s because the food is unhealthy and then eating at that McDonald’s for their lunch break. Definitely protest but back that protesting up with voting.
It’s easy for politicians to ignore you if you don’t ever show up at the polls.
It’s much easier if you ONLY show the at the polls and only for them no matter what.
That’s why you have to vote in the primary. AOC should have taught you that. Also, did you happen to see the last sentence in that previous comment?
I’m not the one being apathetic. This whole disaster has been allowed to happen because people like you support people unconditionally and then they do whatever the fuck they want in office.
When the bar is “better than the alternative” and they keep moving down with it every time Republicans dig down further, you never get the representation you need and deserve.
Your “vote blue no matter who and never criticize OUR leadership” obedience is why the Dems became complacent enough to allow fascism to gain a foothold while themselves veering further right than Reagan.
I genuinely don’t understand how a human could see what they do and think “oh yeah these guys are good, fuck those assholes that care about basic human rights”
For some if it “owns the libs” it’s good. Doesn’t matter if it erodes democracy or not.
It’s this. Many Republicans lack the ability of empathy for other people- especially for people different than them. They can not see things from both sides. They may wonder what happen to democracy when it is gone and be dumfounded when it is their rights being taken away.
Maybe they don’t see people unlike them as fully human.
Ohio Republican legislative leaders signaled they would not respect the will of the people.
Have they ever?
When the people voted for them, sure
That’s what cracks me up the most. Republicans can hold a 1 seat majority and act like they were voted in on a tsunami wave of popular approval sent down by the Almighty himself. They’ll use the slightest majority to spin up committees and investigations and will railroad through every appointment or piece of legislation that they can.
But then when voters reject their ideas with an overwhelming majority, then it’s all “democracy is flawed” and “voters can’t be trusted to know what’s best for them.” Bunch of hypocritical bastards.
If that was the case they wouldn’t have gerrymandered so hard
Republicans want to rule, not represent
They never really stopped. Before this was their previous attempt, the August election’s Issue 1 in which they tried to suppress voter initiatives to amend the Constitution. Anybody that supports Republicans at this point is supporting fascism. There’s not really “the lesser of two evils” in most elections now, it’s the Evil party that is doing just about everything they can against America & the public, and then there’s everyone else.
It’s so important to be registered to vote and to vote in presidential, midterm, and off year elections. It’s important to vote at the national, state, and local levels.
Fun fact, that special election in August broke their own rules as signed in HB 458. Aug special elections were removed unless to draw resolutions on fiscal emergencies (see sec 3501.022-A).
Or when Florida passed an anti gerrymandering law and the governor just ignored the state Congress and resubmitted the illegal maps
Oh did Florida also do it? Ohio’s illegal maps were struck down but they just sent the same ones until time ran out
Yep, for a while now actually. DeSantis just kind of… Ignored the map drawn according to the law and resubmitted the old one. And the sunshine law that requires everything that passes over a public officials desk to be made public, including meeting records and emails
I thought calling Republicans fascist was a little hyperbolic, or at least premature… But then I saw DeSantis blatantly ignore the law, fire elected officials for dutifully fulfilling campaign promises (specifically, by adopting a rehabilitation first stance on crime, which was showing great results), form an extra legal panel to push “anti woke” policies in schools, and gave police the right to take children they suspect might be brought out of state for gender affirming care (obviously not cis gender affirming care like prosthetic boots for men insecure about their height while running for president). Then there’s the book burnings, unconstituional laws, attempting to impose government censorship on Disney, and of course multiple fun flavors of voter suppression
In all fairness his drag queen high heel boots made him to tall to read the law. He’s such a Bitchy queen.
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I just want the rest of the country to understand how little of a say we have in our government in Ohio. They’re comfortable doing this with these margins because of how gerrymandered we are. Illegally so, but they just kept submitting the same map until the timer ran out
Disenfranchise voters with this one weird trick!
Yeah frankly I’m angry that they weren’t held in contempt of court for the first attempt at that. That’s not a situation where any bullshit should be allowed. We were gerrymandered so hard we did a ballot initiative to ban gerrymandering specifically in the way that prevents legislature from changing or overturning it and the Republican state Supreme Court said it was blatantly illegal. And these absolute dictator wannabes just sent the same one. A clear statement of “we do not respect democracy and we will not accept the will of our state population.” No, that’s not a situation that gets a warning. That needs a “if you continue to play stupid games we will stop you”
That or send a third party to create a fair map and decide that the legislature has abdicated their right to create their map
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Can I build the damn guillotine yet?
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Honestly, I’d really like the federal government to enforce the illegality of our districting and protect these lass
I think we should spread the word in left leaning circles about jury nullification. If you’re on trial for beating the shit out of a Republican, and I’m on the trial, I will find you not guilty. Even if there’s a 4k video of you curb stomping Maga Bob while holding your ID.
Voting is important but ultimately might makes right.
I hope they try! The GOPs hard stance on this just keeps helping Dems at every turn. They’re digging their own graves
It’s my hope that stories like this will motivate people to just vote them out.
I lean right on most things, but do support both of these measures. I also support removing lawmakers that do not adhere to the will of the people they were elected to represent. Politicians need to be reminded they work for US, and need to be reminded they should fear the voting public.
There’s a thirsty tree in Ohio.
Sounds like it’s past time for that general strike
Unionize your workplace and set your contract expiration for April 30, 2028. I know it’s far off, but that gives us the time to organize and save. UAW called for everyone to set their expiration dates to the same date. That’s actual planning for a general strike. We need time to build strike funds, build collective power, etc.
Just as soon as someone does all of the necessary planning. Strikes go on for a long time. There needs to be infrastructure in place for helping people meet their needs during a strike. That’s one thing that unions are able to help with. Untill that infrastructure is in place, a general strike will never succeed because people will need money to food, medication, sanitary products, etc.
There aren’t enough cops to guard all of the grocery stores that lack employees from being looted.
One person alone can’t start a nationwide strike. Guess we have to wait for things to get more desperate.
Seriously, you’re already giving up? You have a firm date, five years in the future to get ready, and already have tens of thousand of strikers lined up. How many advantages do you need?
Me personally?
As someone not from US, and generally interested in the specifics of gerrymandering, can someone share a link for the extent of gerrymandering in Ohio.
I like to use the Princeton website that tracks and grades how badly a state has been gerrymandered:
You should post this in the political community. This is a fantastic resource.
It’s the nakedness with which they show contempt for their constituents that alarms me. The Right now feel no fear of getting called out.
Well if calling them out doesn’t work maybe we should vote them out!
