Today, we have a new era on Ohio politics at least in terms of the new state and Senate leaders of this year's newly elected office holders.
We have reason to hope that something good will result from Ohio electing the "other" party, that over 15 years ago was run out of town-well at least, Columbus- on a rail. [I know, cause I was 'there']
What is the meaning of this? The outcome is yet to be felt in terms of every day people and everyday issues affecting many of us 'liberals' who were for so long shut out of the thing called
representative government in the State of Ohio's major political debates and issues of the past decade or more.
What is clear is there is an opportunity for change to occur and with the presidential election, there is again reason to hope that the democratic party will win the White House by having a favorable governor and a new democratic Senator from Ohio this time around, not to mention a new secretary of state and attorney general.
What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.
What isn't calculated is the powerful interests who captured the Ohio Supreme Court in total this past same election cycle and what it portends for anyone thinking the republican party has suffered a mortal blow, either now or at any time in the near future in Ohio's political landscape and environment.
In fact, with the consolidation of a clear sweep of ALL the judicial offices' seats on the State Supreme Court, there is something of a very mixed signal being sent back to the electorate
right now, by those newly elected and those who have held onto power for over 15 years in a row.
What must occur is the democrats must be indeed, democratic in their outlook and in their conduct and actions towards those who helped to de-elect their republican statewide officer holders and much more well- known statewide names and allowed this political breather to take place.
However, this present circumstance looks and appears, as if it is almost business as usual among the poor of Ohio today. It isn't but it can at times oddly appear that way.
While there have been some solid proposals and efforts by both the Governor and the new Attorney General, and Secretary of State, there is a lot left to be desired, literally.
Six months into their new found positions and many in Ohio on the left are still wondering if they have a truly representative democratic officer holder[s] in position in Columbus or whether if the Republicans have really left office and only the names have changed.
It is almost as if the elephant is sitting down w/ the donkey and teaching him a few old tricks of how things get done indeed now post Voinovich, Noe, Taft and Petro and Montgomery, if not what's his name who ran against Strickland...
[ and there is no post Moyers whatsoever to contend with]
IN a word, to many of us who worked hard for change this past mid term election and wanted to see change more than most who have more than mere passing interest in politics both national and statewide and locally, we have yet to see the trickle down effect of having their voices simply getting heard by our sudden new found friends in such positions of influence and political power.
Patience is always a good thing. It is also understood.
Yet, having to wait in line, with most nearly everyone with a suppressed sentiment and issue on the left side of the aisle in Ohio is well, frustrating at best. This is also understood .
Yet, there is a need among our newly elected popular governor and his new democratic companions to find some better form of making one's needs and special concerns known to
them.
We need those who have taken power in a Northern Spring, after such a long, too long, perhaps, "whites only" republican [except for the token black] winter experience in this state.
to first, perhaps, simply....take the time to listen and listen carefully to some who have had much experience, in state affairs and to those who are citizens in need.
Perhaps, these new officers need to find their own way and discover their own voice in office before they can actually do much to help anyone else.
Such is the way public office creates demands upon the truly inexperienced in state office requirements and clear statewide responsibilities... It is a unique perspective, indeed,
isn't Marc and Ted?
But there is also a warning here; if the democrats only intend to make it known that they enjoyed winning their officers more for the 'affect' and for political purposes only as some in Congress seem to project, and do not engage in a geniune and honest manner with those at a grass roots level to assist the base and the left's serious anemia, which has been produced by the continuous exposure to a very toxic republican dominance for so long, there will be a quick loss of trust and confidence in those same newly elected leaders of this state, both federal and state.
Having high expectations of change is one thing; hearing heated complaints and rhetoric against the status quo will only get one so far. Gridlock is not an excuse to not to at a minimum, to listen to one's friends, even if they are in lower places.
We need real dialague first and real action second, out of these newly elected democratic party leaders from Ohio.
We need most of all, for them to simply listen to the 'voice heard small' in places that have 'little light'...the very places which the republican domination left so many so worse off over the years and have left also so many terribly adrift amidst a very cynical and darkening world and life threatening circumstance.
Voices need to be heard in order for the people to begin to trust politicians again in this state on either side of the political equation. Listening to the same is a good thing, especially if you wish to understand the deep sense of disenfranchisement among the working classes and the poor and working poor of this State and the young.
The true test of this past election is happening as this is being written and the real issues are felt by the modest people who have waited it seemed like an eternity for political change to occur in this state.
When after some hard work, a real historical moment has now occurred, these same patient and expectant persons [by the multitude] who were among the most sincere and true hoping for change last year with the turn of events in terms of this state's politics, are again being made to wait longer still to simply get "an audience" and have their issues and concerns addressed in something NOT resembling the kind of deliberate indifference the prior 15 years of political dessert experience demonstrated under the former opposing party which basically ended most if not all, human and rational hope that government, even this state's government leaders, can and do care about average people who have sometimes not so average concerns.
These are those so seriously in need of a true and geniune listening leadership on issues that truly affect them and which matter the most to them.
In short, if the left who are now new in office, leaves the left who are on 'the street' and in the distressed areas of this state, helped to elect them....at this juncture, of their political posturing for the next run up for the next election cycle, be it a presidential or otherwise significant election, there will be hell to pay at the polls, I am afraid.
There will be also a morality play of significant dimensions portrayed to all the world.
More importantly, if these present newly elected democrats do not show any more concern or compassion for those "lefties" than what they got from the republicans since Voinovich became governor in the late 1980s early 90's....than the heart will harden completely towards not just these democrats but all political processes.
The answer will not be healthy for the present american experience and the politics of indifference and apathy in America's voting electorate will grow exponentially. It could result in what happened to the progressive movement when it was sold out by those whom they thought were their friends in almost exactly the same time frame, a century ago.
Progressive movements can be shattered and their lot cast to the winds of history. Ask those who study history about such moments in american political lexicons.
Better yet, rather, simply ask all those democratic state officer holders of the mid 1980s....
Tony Celebreeze and a few others seemed to not understand the same until it was too late for a democratic seemingly unstoppable machine then.
and it can happen today, as they say, again.
We can also live again under another Herbert Hoover like governor and soon again, be subjected to the likes of yet another nice smiling facial Taft poster child of feigned concern for the working man of this northern state in distress in most areas outside of Columbus and certain Cleveland & Cincinnati and Toledo suburbs.
Perhaps the same king of "main stream" smiling face can treat us along with Thomas Moyers and his new found dominance in state republican politics again, to yet another republican win at the white house, as well.....where Tom Noe fresh from a presidential pardon, can provide the dinner guests with luxury homes and nice fat campaign donations and regains his
rightful "master of ceremonies" title once again among those righteous elect who dare to share w/ the masses their very highest honors, if not, their most sophisticated of all fund raising abilities.
If the true left are mistreated and Ohio's new democratic officer holders simply put them away in the political closet somewhere, now that the cleaning has occured, simply to be taken out four years from now,
...then the certain to come, 'invitation to support' such 'continuation of change' will be met with serious stone cold handshakes and with the same kind of cold indifference and silence that has met some on the left among those in the street and among the grass roots, of our state, literally,
so far, in many an attempt to simply make conversation with these new hoped for ones.
Six months in a statewide office goes like a summer afternoon at the beach. Soon it will be time to leave the nice and pleasant environs and summer hazy entrance which occurs upon entering such high offices and school will be back in session.
Its time for serious studies to occur and some need to learn to listen, again, instead of playing their own music so loud and allowing themselves to get lost among their former lovers
and the partying crowds of such summer fun.
If the true democratic forces in various distressed areas and their needs ...
[these are indeed, "the left" who actually need government to do something positive for a change in this State [knowing minimum wage increases in Ohio did not occur by any great modern legislative initiative or one governor's ideas alone]
...go unaddressed in a substantial, if not indifferent manner, then the left of Ohio will come to know what exactly a summer romance is worth.
This will in turn only return the rich and the conservatively motivated to their 'rightful' place at the seat of powers in this midwest bell weather state.
If this happens again any time soon, in our lifetime, certainly the sign that ought to be hoisted over this government and our democratic institutions, [and certainly the state democratic party itself]...
will be "abandon all hope all ye who would enter here"...
Listening...to the people's concerns of those who helped you and made your election much more a thing of possibility, in many respects, among the middle and minority areas of certain distressed regions of this state, is something of a good place to start....
It would also be the good and simply geniune thing to do....
This is a final dance, Ted, Marc and Sherrod [and do I dare mention you too, Lee , of my own
former choosing ....in a past better now forgotten like both of our summer loves...]
Shall we? or shall we turn away from you as one turns away from sour lukewarm milk?
Only your response will make known the answer to this standing querry that many a true liberal mind here in this critical time and region awaits.
and...this line, by the way, ... is not getting any shorter ....
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