Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, November 11, 2023

WHO'S SURPRISED?




NEW: In a new press release, Ohio Republicans say they will not accept the results of Tuesday's elections and will continue to enforce their abortion bans in the state in defiance of the state's constitution and the will of the people.

 



Having Lost Abortion Vote, Ohio GOP Now Plans to Sabotage Results Ohio Republicans do not care about the election results. 

Sound familiar?

Ohio state Republican lawmakers are once again trying to overturn the will of the people, after a devastating loss on abortion rights. Ohioans overwhelmingly chose to enshrine abortion protections in the state Constitution earlier this week. Republicans had tried multiple times to block the referendum, called Issue 1, but they were handily defeated every time. 



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Don't ever let anyone tell you, especially Trumpublicans, that they are liberty-loving Americans who respect our democratic republic and our democratic processes.

It is painfully obvious that Trumpublican politicians care nothing for the rule of law, and will continue to try to impose their will on even their own people when their own people vote against what the politicians/religionists want.

Make no mistake, we've seen this enough times to understand that today's Republican Party is anti-democracy and pro-authoritarian, and they care nothing for the rule of law.

Their hero, Donald Trump, has led them down the path of rejecting American democracy. 

Just look at what the Trumpublicans in Ohio are doing for proof.

6 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

The only liberty the insurectionist loving MAGAt's want is their liberty to force the majority to conform to their ideological and religionist beliefs.

The uneducated and gullible folks that the rapist insurectionist tRump loves to manipulate are starting to set up the framework for the impending colapse of democracy. We are on the death road to facism in the USA.

It can, and likely will, happen here. Nobody was worried about Hitler. Until it was too late and they were. Is the USA going to make the same mistake? It's a real possibility.

Dave Miller said...

In Ohio, the GOP, knowing they would lose this referendum to amend their state constitution pushed through a special statewide vote last August. The amendment they wanted? An amendment changing the decades long process for amending their constitution from a majority vote to a more difficult 60% + 1 vote. They wanted this not because their residents were clamoring for such a change, but because looking ahead, they knew they would lose the vote they just had if the threshold for amendments remained at 50%.

They lost that vote and then lost in the election Tuesday, thus their Constitution has been amended.

Is the state legislature accepting the "will of the people" they say they are sworn to uphold?

Not exactly.

Now the Ohio GOP is saying the recently approved Constitutional Amendment does not invalidate prior laws, including their ban on abortion, but rather, only applies to future laws, thus the abortion ban stays on the books and "will be enforced."

Now, smart people will know that this will surely bring a challenge to the Ohio Supreme Court, where the conservatives have a one vote majority. But rather than rely on that majority, the MAGA radical state legislature and their counterparts in the Senate, both with super majorities that bring the ability to override a more centrist GOP governor, are moving to terminate judicial review of legislative actions.

This would mean that the MAGA radicals in Ohio, if successful in their plan, after having lost two elections related to abortion, are now moving in invalidate the professed will of the people in their state and make their actions unreviewable by any court in the state.

Are we surprised?

Not. At. All.

Because the GOP and their supporters only respect the will of the people when that will lines up with what they want to see happen.

It's the MAGA way.

Mike said...

It's happened twice here in Missouri where republican scum over turn a vote of the people. I still don't know how they did that.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dave Miller: "Are we surprised?

Not. At. All.

Because the GOP and their supporters only respect the will of the people when that will lines up with what they want to see happen.

It's the MAGA way."

It's not just the MAGA way, it's the way authoritarian countries operate. They do not respect the law nor the will of the people.

The Republicans keep showing America that they will bend the law to their will, and they will not respect the American democracy.

We are watching the awful truth -- Trumpublicans acting lawlessly in service to their idea of what America should be.

It is sickening. And it should terrify those who believe in justice and the law.

Dave Miller said...

In 2008, candidate Barack Obama amassed a popular vote win over John McCain by more than 10 million votes. His electoral college vote was more than 200 votes. Claiming a mandate from the people, Obama set about to pass the Democratic agenda.

Soon after his inauguration, Sen Mitch McConnell announced that despite Obama's big win, there was no mandate from the American people and he set about to thwart the will of the majority of Americans who voted for Obama.

In 2016, after Trump lost the popular vote and won a smaller electoral college vote than did Obama, the GOP, including McConnell stated that Trump had won a mandate from the American people and deserved to enact his agenda.

In 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to allow ex felons who had served their time in prison to vote. This would have allowed over 400,000 people to be able to vote and elect people to represent them. Soon after that Constitutional amendment was passed, the state GOP moved to change the law to add further restrictions to ex felons so they still could not be eligible to vote.

In 2023, the SCOTUS struck down a decision by the GOP dominated state legislature to make their laws unreviewable by the courts to ensure constitutionality. Even though state laws required this.

In 2010, voters in Florida voters passed a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting racially motivated gerrymandering. In 2020, the GOP legislature moved to do just that even as GOP Reapportionment Chairman Ray Rodrigues said the new maps violated the Voting Rights Act and were racially motivated.

In Wisconsin this year, after a liberal candidate was elected to the state Supreme Court, GOP leaders there moved to impeach her "before she had a chance to even rule on a case."

Over and over, and these are just a few examples, the GOP has disagreed when the voters have spoken and moved to thwart the will of the people. The vote only matters and is only seen as legal, true and accurate when the GOP wins.

This is who the GOP is. They do not trust the American people to make the right decision and will obstruct, deny and lie, as we saw after the 2020 presidential elections, when they don't get their way at the ballot box.

Why?

Les Carpenter said...

Because they can. And they know it. Nothing other than a slap on the wrist and several million in fines won't deter tRump. Only a prison cell will.