Fuck the Poor
The Queen City offers just the latest example of America's No. 1 bipartisan belief.
Some self-promotion before we begin today: Touch the Boulder, a documentary involving my failed 2018 Statehouse run, is premiering at The Cut Cinema Movie Theater in Canton tonight (7 p.m.) with other showings Friday (7 p.m.) and Saturday (5:30 p.m.).
I will be in Canton on Friday and Saturday to host a Q&A with the director Benedict Kasulis after the showings.
You can get in on the ground floor of the next documentary to take Sundance by storm by purchasing tickets here.
If you can’t make it, no worries. There will be future screenings that will be announced in due time, and my understanding is a stream option will be made available even if Netflix makes the biggest mistake of their life by passing on this groundbreaking story.
Back when I wrote for Eleven Warriors, I was prone, like a lot of Ohioans, to making “Cincinnati is actually in Kentucky!” jokes. In retrospect they were cheap, unoriginal and not funny.
Over the years, I have come to respect the Queen City. Skyline Chili is fine, though I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat it; it remains tolerable as long as the chosen establishment is handling their business. Its downtown shits on Columbus’ despite both sitting on the banks of their respective rivers. Its sports teams are trash, but that’s a topic for another day.
Still, we’re talking about a place that had race riots only two decades ago. Its suburbs are some of the most racist places in the state, which is saying something considering the casual racism of most suburbs and the nature of outright racism that flows throughout Ohio.
Hamilton County used to be a Republican stronghold until changing Demographics evicted them from power outside of Democratic Auditor Dusty Rhodes, a crotchety transphobe who spends his days showing his dusty ass on Twitter.
The Democrats haven’t done much with their power. They serve the local real estate barons just like their counterparts do in Columbus and Cleveland. Its mayor, John Cranley, is a feckless loser incapable of winning a statewide election just like his counterparts in Columbus and Cleveland.
P.G. Sittenfeld, the City Council President and one-time frontrunner for the mayor’s office, was arrested on federal bribery and corruption charges. That’s on top of former Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard, who pleaded guilty to accepting $15,000 in exchange for her votes, and Councilman Wendell Young, who was indicted last month for felony tampering of records. (This list doesn’t include former Republican Councilman Jeff Pastor, who was also indicted on bribery and extortion charges by the FBI.)
Cincinnati Democrats responded in Tuesday night’s mayoral primary by sending Aftab Pureval, a guy who ran an embarrassing campaign for the OH-1 Congressional seat in 2018, and David Mann, a guy who walked out of a public hearing because he was hearing too much from the public, to the General Election runoff in November. Puzzling choices to say the least.
Also on the ballot was Issue 3, a rare chance for Cincinnati voters to overrule their real estate lobby pimps and allocate $50 million a year (with built-in inflation benchmarks) towards affordable housing into a trust fund to ease the city’s housing crisis.
It wasn’t surprising to see odious consults and Hamilton County Republicans spike the football when the issue failed, 73% to 27%; it was somewhat more surprising to see the Hamilton County Democrats had worked to defeat the measure.
Here you have a guy who lists his occupation as an “Ohio based political and media consultant” who is taking pride in his work of felling the powerful political lobby of unhoused poor people.
Notice the attached graphic. “Protect Cincinnati.” From whom, exactly? I guess clip art featuring a fire truck, a family walking their dog across a basketball court for some reason, a recycling bin, a first aid kit and a heroin syringe make for a better graphic than adding, “Protect Cincinnati from poor people.”
This is what the American Dream has wrought, entires cities of people who only care about their property values instead of their less fortunate neighbors. We love to pretend we’re a society based on the gospel of Jesus, when in actually we’re founded on the Prosperity Gospel and the spiritual hustlers that peddle it.
City leaders said it would devastate the city budget and lead to layoffs. That’s only true if we close our eyes and pretend those city leaders, who spent the last 10 years promising they believe in affordable housing in their campaign ads, don’t have the power to raise taxes.
They won’t do that, though, because it’s easier for them to raise money from their corporate pimps in return for their votes than it is to be an politician who actually believes in something.
There will be no counterproposal from these people. There will be no actual policy passed to ease the burden of housing for poor people in Hamilton County. No, the wheel of corruption will keep turning. But hey, at least local Democrats can take pride in working with Republicans to spite poor people.
That’s America’s No. 1 bipartisan belief, after all.
THOSE WMDs. Our friend, the Trump propagandist… How bots and dead accounts helped drive one Ma’Khia Bryant narrative… The Senate screwed college students to “pay” for the Iraq War… You should put a bowl of vinegar in your dishwasher — here’s why… The hanging of a census worker.
Wow, congrats on the documentary! The trailer looked great.