Tuesday's Ohio Primary: More of the Same

As someone who is greatly concerned about the direction our country is currently taking, I was deeply troubled by the lack of any substantial political change coming out of Tuesday’s Ohio primary election.

I am not saying that there weren’t any good people selected; there were.

However, most of what we witnessed in that election was the same old politics, the same old way, by the same old people.

When you talk about shady, backroom deals, which were agreed upon behind closed doors, that is certainly not a cliché. That is the Ohio Republican Party leadership.

Although I call myself a Republican, I must tell you that the Ohio GOP does not speak for me. They haven’t for a long time.

Allow me to give you an example:

The Ohio GOP is headed up by a man named Kevin DeWine.

Little Kevin DeWine is the cousin of Mike DeWine, who was elected to run for Ohio Attorney General in November.

Last year, a friend of mine and I were invited to Athens, Ohio, to meet with a good man named Dave Yost, who was going to announce his decision to run for Attorney General.

However, Little Kevin DeWine persuaded Dave to give up his decision, in order to make a place for Cousin Mike.

Therefore, in order to win the favor of the party boss, Dave Yost was relegated to run for Auditor of state, dooming another good man, Seth Morgan, to an electoral defeat on Tuesday.

Just describing the process to you makes me feel like I need a bath.

Seth Morgan is a fine, young man, who might have brought some real reform to Columbus; Dave Yost may do that, as well.

However, you will not get anything other than the status quo from Mike DeWine.

When you mention the name DeWine, you are not talking about a bold, conservative leader.

DeWine, Voinovich, and Taft—those three names are indicative of all the things that are wrong with politics in Columbus and Washington.

There is not a statesman among them!

They do not represent Tea Party values; in their actions and policies, they are Progressives.

These men do not represent you; they endlessly pursue their own political interests, which generally involve their attempts to remain in power. And their relatives’ shameless, political maneuvering allows them to succeed in those efforts.

If Ohio is to ever truly resolve its budget woes, then it needs to elect some courageous and principled men and women, who will boldly get a handle on the out-of-control, bloated spending.

We need statesmen in Columbus and Washington.

And I am greatly disturbed that we didn’t get many of them on Tuesday.