Rant #2: Why the GOP lost Ohio

While I am on a good roll (and my head is still on the verge of exploding) I am going to tackle a topic that I have not covered yet on Red State Rampage: why the Republicans lost elections in Ohio. Can everyone stop blaming the right-wing nutjobs or the RINOs or the religious right for one freaking second? All three groups share some of the blame for Republicans losing, because THEY ARE ALL DAMN REPUBLICANS! The Religious Right did not turn out to volunteer like they were promised, a lot of the RINOs did not vote or support GOP candidates in this cycle, and the right-wing nutjobs, well they were simply along for the ride. Bob Taft and Tom Noe and Bob Ney did not all conspire to lose the election for us, as ridiculous and malignant as their actions may have been. Yes, that hurt, but where were Ohio Republicans calling on Taft to resign after his guilty plea (or his 6% approval rating)? Where were they in the two years that the Ney investigation was going on (because you don't all of a sudden become guilty at the tail end of an investigation)? Bob Bennett did not solely lose the election; the Ohio GOP actually did quite a phenomenal job considering the circumstances. College Republicans did not lose the election by not giving 24 hours a day; to count on a 24/7 commitment from college kids is ridiculous to expect in the first place (can someone tell campaign staffers this?). We did not lose because of terrible candidates; if this were true then Sandy O'Brien would not have received roughly the same number of votes as the rest of the ticket. We did not lose because of the Iraq War, because if this were true, we would have lost more Congressional seats than one.

No, Republicans lost for one simple reason: we continually have campaigned as conservatives and governed as, well, whatever the heck we feel like doing. Sure, everything else played a role, but people were absolutely sick of being two-faced. More than anything, voters want results, and they are going to go with whomever it is that they think will get them results. And, when it comes to results, the GOP has not exactly delivered in Ohio. How do you get the 3rd highest tax burden in the nation with 16 years of fiscal conservatism? It doesn't exactly add up, now does it?

What amazes me is that it took this long to get the GOP thrown out for making promises they never kept. I guess that this can be chalked up to the continuing naivete of voters who do not trust politicians one iota, until it comes to election time when they believe all of the baloney they are being spoon-fed. I know that the majority of our elected GOPers in the General Assembly are not crappy lawmakers; simply look at what has been accomplished by them in the last month alone. Voters lit a fire under their collective ass and things are getting done!

So where do we go from here? Well, that is another topic for another post, one not so full of piss and vinegar. But, rest assured, it is coming soon.