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Ohio voters scored a big election victory for women's rights last week! It was a tricky vote, too -- deceptively couched as a statewide referendum to approve a little technical change in the procedure for approving statewide referendums. How boring.
But Ohioans figured out that it really was a BIG vote on an underhanded ploy by right-wing Republicans to block the right of women to make their own reproductive decisions. Not boring. So, in a huge turnout, a whopping 57% of voters said "yes" to women and "NO!" to the tricksters.
Yet the referendum actually did encompass a procedural issue that's an even bigger political story than the election results -- namely the GOP's ongoing attempts to rig election rules so its extremist minority can "win" without getting a majority of the votes.
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?
Background: A state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion is already set to be voted on this November in Ohio. Right-wing Republican leaders fear that more than half of Ohioans will support that amendment. Thus, last week's referendum was their desperate attempt to win by losing, specifically by decreeing that -- hocus-pocus! -- constitutional initiatives must get 60% approval to become law. Yes, a 40% minority of voters could nullify the majority will of the people.
This gaming of the system by devious Republican officials and far-right extremists has become their core political strategy across the country. It's actually a deeply embarrassing admission by them: They are conceding that they are now captives of ideological extremism and outright nutballism, making their party so completely out of touch with the American majority that they can't win honestly. So, they've become the Anti-Democracy Party, acting as rabid political veterinarians out to "fix" democracy by neutering the power of the people.
WHY DEMOCRATS SHOULD HELP REPUBLICANS PUBLICIZE 'PROJECT 2025'
When your political opponents push extremist public policies that would be disastrous for America, should you wring your hands in dread... or applaud?
Consider "Project 2025," put together by former Trump administration officials and the Koch brothers' network of billionaire plutocrats. Their strategy is to win the presidency next year by demonizing all environmental protections and promising to halt all national efforts to cope with the obvious crises of climate change. Their proposals include repealing regulations that curb fossil fuel pollution, terminating our nation's transition to renewable energy, shutting down all environmental protection agencies, encouraging more oil and gas drilling and use, and promoting the deadly delusion that global warming is not a real problem.
Moreover, they intend to implement Project 2025 in the first 180 days of a right-wing Republican's presidential term -- obviously anticipating that former President Donald Trump will be that president. "We are not tinkering at the edges," brags a far-out right-wing group that instigated the scheme. "We are writing a battle plan and we are marshalling our forces." They've already drawn up a list of agencies and policies they'll begin eliminating on Day One, and they've readied a list of some 20,000 right-wing henchmen to put on the federal payroll immediately to enforce their plan.
If this sounds ludicrous, it is. But it's actually happening, for the Republican Party has decided to be ludicrous. As the director of Project 2025 told The New York Times, "(This is) where the conservative movement sits at this time."
Maybe, but it damn sure won't sit well with the American people, who're presently suffering the hellish ravages of our rapidly overheating climate. Indeed, here's a great chance for Democrats to demonstrate their bipartisan spirit by doing all they can to publicize the Republicans' let-it-burn global warming policy.
To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.
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