Irritated with the ODP and all these threats

Welcome to the next installment of "The Liberal Approach". Some very interesting things have been happening lately, here in Ohio, and around the country. I'm just going to get a few things out there, and let you share your opinions.

First of all, this past Wednesday, the Ohio Democratic Party decided to hand out a list of endorsements. While not many of them come as a total surprise, there is one that hits close to home that irks me. As many of you may already know, I am now interning with Sean Buchanan's campaign for the Ohio House of Representatives(68th District). Now this might seem a bit biased, but I assure you, had this situation turned out in the favor of my candidate, I would still be a little irked. Like I said, this past Wednesday, the ODP announced who they would be endorsing in several statewide races. They chose to stay out of the Senate race between Lt. Gov. Fisher and S.O.S Brunner; which I am happy about. But when it came to decide whether they would endorse in the 68th District State House race, the ODP decided to go forth with an endorsement of Kathleen Clyde. Now, in my opinion, this will not have a great impact on the race, but the mere fact that I work closely with Sean Buchanan, and have a friend working for Rick Hawksley, this irks because of a particular reason. I've been told by very reliable sources up until this point, that the Ohio Democratic Party was going to stay neutral in this race, from both Sean's people and Rick's people and from some who work with the ODP. I believe this risk alienating supporters of the other two candidates. Not that I don't think Clyde would make a great candidate, because she will if she wins the primary, but the mere fact that Buchanan was told on numerous occasions by those of the Democratic caucus, that there would be no endorsement of anyone until after the primary. Also, I believe this has a chance at making the ODP look bad if Buchanan or Hawksley win the primary. And personally, if I was either of them and they won, I'd be even more ticked off with the party. But like I've already said, I don't believe this will have a big impact on the voters of the 68th District. To quote Buchanan "It’s the voters of Portage County who get to decide.” And I could not agree more.

Next point I'd like to go to is the US Senate Democratic primary here in Ohio, between Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and S.O.S. Jennifer Brunner. In the past couple weeks, there has been lots of attention paid to this race(as there should). Its due largly to the fact that Fisher petitioned the ODP to endorse him in the race against Brunner. Now, I am a Lee Fisher supporter, although I believe Brunner would be a strong candidate as well. But I felt the Fisher campaign was wrong in trying to pursue this route. It would alienate Brunner voters, whom are largely made up of women to no surprise, and it would hurt Fisher's prospects of getting those supporters on his side in the fall, if he is indeed the nominee. The ODP made a right decision in this case, and that was to stay out of the race and let the Democratic voters of Ohio decide who their candidate would be in the general election. While I am a strong supporter of the ODP and will work closely with them on numerous things, I just don't see why they didn't stay out of both these races. They seem to have contradicted themselves in this situation, by the mere fact they said from the beginning that they were remaining neutral in both races, and then go on and endorse in one race and stick to their original stance in another.

Lets move beyond the state level now, and onto the national level. Within the past week since the healthcare bill passed, there have been many threats against both sides of the aisle; those who voted for the bill and those who voted against it. I would like to condemn both sides for their hostile words and hopefully all this rhetoric will die down soon. First of all, I will address those who are threatening the Democrats who supported the bill. I would just like these people to realize, that there is a reason why many Americans(including many who are against this healthcare bill) voted Democrats into office the past two election cycles. Every Democrat who voted for this type of healthcare overhaul, CAMPAIGNED on this type of reform, or at least something similar to it. If you actually did not know a particular Democrat was for this type of reform before voting for him or her, then I guess you should of done a little bit more research and became a little more informed on the policy beliefs of these individuals. To put it simply, you should not be surprised, you should be rejoicing that the Democrats actually got something done(you cannot really say that about the Republican Party). And to my fellow Democrats threatening and harrassing Republicans who voted against the bill, please don't stoop to the levels of those who are less informed. Nobody is going to want to vote for a Democrat if they see we are making and doing the same things the disgruntled Republicans normally do. Rise above the hate and rhetoric, and celebrate in this historic feat.


Well, thats all for this installment of "The Liberal Approach". Hope you enjoyed this. My next post will come within a couple days.


Mark Miller

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