Geo

Ohio v**ers scored a big e******n victory for women’s rights last week! It was a tricky v**e, 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 v**e 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 precent of v**ers 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 e******n results – namely the GOP’s ongoing attempts to rig e******n rules so it’s extremist minority can “win” without getting a majority of the v**es. Background: A state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to a******n is already set to be v**ed 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-percent approval to become law. Yes, a 40-percent minority of v**ers 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.
By: Jim Hightower