What is to be Done?
The arrogance of State House Majority Leader Bill Seitz shows that the time of "just voting" has passed in Ohio.
First, a bit of house-keeping: Apologies for the debacle this morning about two emails arriving late. Naturally it happened on what was supposed to be the briskest day of business for The Rooster this month. Unfortunately it was not my fault although the financial consequences will be mine to own:
I pay Substack handsomely to handle one single job: Deliver my emails to my customers when they’re expected. It’s already enough struggle for me to schedule every single post to schedule at the appropriate time, which is why I don’t appreciate when I awake to a flood of texts, emails and Twitter DMs from my beloved customers inquiring about their morning fix.
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The nice thing about observing Ohio politics is that you can always depend on the worst possible outcome coming to fruition.
Such was the case when Ohio voters passed a Constitutional amendment that ostensibly outlawed gerrymandering. Sure, it was heartwarming to see the hog voters of Ohio pass that legislation with 70% of the vote.
But the monkey part of my brain, that is to say the sphere that operates in a higher plane than sentimentality, knew that the Republicans would never surrender their supermajorities in both state legislative chambers and the Congressional delegation because they were asked.
So that prophecy has come to pass. The Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Committee, led by State House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) and State Senate Leader Matt Huffman (R-Lima), realized there was no enforcement mechanism that would result in personal penalties if they sabotaged the process until some other Republican hobgoblin in the judicial system decided they were in the right.
That’s exactly what happened, and Ohio will be $20 million poorer as we will be forced to run two primaries this election cycle thanks to their ratfucking.
For those that haven’t been following, a federal court gave the Ohio Republican Party two doors, behind which they will both be winners in ways of their own choosing.
From Jessie Balmert The Cincinnati Enquirer:
On Wednesday, three federal judges ruled that they would step in to resolve the endless back-and-forth between the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a seven-member body tasked with drawing legislative maps, and the Ohio Supreme Court, which has rejected four maps so far. Each rejection from the court was a 4-3 decision.
The federal judges set a deadline for Ohio's leaders to resolve their own problems: May 28, so the state could hold an Aug. 2 primary for state House and Senate races.
Then, two of those judges – U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit Judge Amul Thapar and Western District of Kentucky Judge Benjamin Beaton – picked which maps they would order if forced to step in. They would back a plan to use maps approved by four Republicans on Feb. 24 and later rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court. Both judges were appointed by former President Donald Trump.
The previously rejected maps, of the third rendition, were touted by numerous Statehouse reporters as maps that would yield a 54 Republican, 46 Democrat split in the House and a 18 Republican, 15 Democrat split in the map. The Republicans would never have passed the maps if that were even in the realm of possibility.
The Ohio Supreme Court saw through the scam, as Susan Tebben of The Ohio Capital Journal reported at the time:
The newest plan had 19 House districts considered toss-ups, and seven Senate districts in the same toss-up range.
“The result is that the 54 percent seat share for Republicans is a floor, while the 46 percent share for Democrats is a ceiling,” the court wrote (italics their own).
That amount of toss-up districts, the court found, is “evidence of an intentionally biased map,” and is just one piece showing partisan lopsidedness on the part of the GOP.
Now, the Republicans can run out the clock and be rewarded for their skullduggery for the next two years, at which point Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, the only thing standing in the way of the Supreme Court approving the Republican maps on their first try, will be off the court and assuredly replaced with a lizard who believes in the darkest right-wing conspiracies.
But you don’t take The Rooster’s word for it; here’s State House Majority Leader Bill Seitz, consistently voted as “most arrogant” by his arrogant colleagues, last night while battling with his arch-nemesis, former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper:
Seitz wants to kiss Pepper so, so bad. But the warm glass of milk insult is especially galling considering that Seitz looks exactly like the type of guy who would enjoy a glass of milk while projecting that geriatric behavior onto his enemies.
The exchange offers searing insight into the Republican mindset: Democracy is a game in which they will gladly cheat to win.
And what would you do, if you were playing a board game with an obdurate cheater? Would you continue to play the game? Only if the cheater were your seven year-old child.
It’s foolish for us to tolerate that kind of behavior from drunken fossils whose dicks haven’t worked since the Jurassic era in games with much higher stakes than Monopoly. Assholes like Seitz act like this because they know they’re above reproach at the ballot box.
The way The Rooster sees it, we have three options:
Driving a bulldozer into the Statehouse and lighting the rubble on fire.
Leave the state entirely.
Shame these crooks every time they deign to hold court in the swanky restaurants that their districts lacks.
Of the three, The Rooster finds the third option as the most plausible.
For example, Seitz, like a lot of Statehouse Republicans, loves to dine at Lindey’s, an upscale restaurant in the upscale neighborhood of German Village:
From Jim Provance of The Toledo Blade in July 2021:
COLUMBUS — The Ohio House Speaker's office confirmed Tuesday that it is aware of a recent confrontation involving Majority Leader Bill Seitz and rank-and-file state Rep. Jon Cross over what was then a pending vote to oust former Speaker Larry Householder from office.
A source close to the situation told The Blade that the incident occurred at Lindey's, a Columbus restaurant frequented by lawmakers and lobbyists, the week before the floor vote took place.
Mr. Seitz (R., Cincinnati) fought the move to expel Mr. Householder (R., Glenford) from the chamber. The former speaker faces a federal racketeering charge in what has been called the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history.
The Rooster realizes that badgering public officials in restaurants is unpalatable to some readers. But consider where the alternative has led us.
German Village, for example, voted by over 70% for Joe Biden. Given what you’ve seen from Republican voters as of late, do you think the reverse situation would be tolerated by them if powerful Democratic legislators and lobbyists were holding court in an Applebee’s in Van Wert?
The residents of Columbus have a particular debt to the rest of left-leaning voters in Ohio to make life hell for these losers whenever they step into public. And frankly, we have defaulted on that debt for long enough.
THOSE WMDs. When “Stan” became a verb… Washington D.C. was a monument to black power; then came gentrification… Netflix is tearing up its playbook… How democracies spy on their citizens… Warner Bros. Discovery will shut down CNN+
I don't know, man, I think you're underestimating the effectiveness of the bulldozer option.