If you make one resolution this new crazy year, make it this: Resolve to activate your American citizenship. Engage. No more excuses to let someone else do the heavy lifting for the rights you take for granted. As Americans, we all have skin in the game of how our country and our state are run and who we choose to lead both.
In 2024, we will decide whether our government of, by and for the people endures or ends. History’s eyes are on us and the future of generations of Americans hang in the balance. We didn’t ask for this make-or-break test of our allegiance to a 250-year-old ideal — where sovereign power rests not with kings or dictators but us — yet here we are.
We are the ultimate source of authority in our republic exercised through our chosen representatives. When those representatives forget who they work for, we citizens can get off our duffs and remind them. Look what enough ticked-off Ohioans did in 2023 when Ohio Republicans, drunk on power in Columbus, tried to con the citizens of this state into giving up vital clout.
The hubris of legislative kingpins to manipulate Ohioans out of their majority voting rights (to keep us from voting on abortion rights) was breathtaking. But that’s what happens when corrupt politicians take constituents for granted in gerrymandered districts designed to guarantee one-party rule. It also happens when constituents are largely apathetic to the self-serving schemes of their elected officials.
When we let the public servants we hire do whatever they please — without challenge or consequence — they will. Ohio Republicans act with a license to overreach. They don’t fear Ohio voters. GOP mapmakers rigged the voting system with unconstitutionally gerrymandered districts that lock in job security for Republican officeholders.
Politicians don’t sweat election outcomes in districts where they pick their voters, instead of the other way around. Convinced of their invincibility, unaccountable partisans can self-deal with special interests or flout the law with impunity. Ohio Republicans refused to comply with state supreme court orders demanding compliance with the state constitution on fair redistricting that doesn’t notoriously advantage one party.
They broke a law (they had just passed) to sneak a legislative amendment onto a special election ballot to improve its odds of passage. They held an illegal election on the sly to change the rules mid-game on citizen-initiated amendments — to derail a forthcoming citizen-initiated amendment on abortion rights.
Gerrymandered arrogance persuaded them they could get away with an outrageous ruse to rob Ohio voters of their century-old right to direct democracy. It was on a summertime ballot. Nobody was paying attention. Easy-peasy.
The GOP maneuver was so underhanded and so audacious in its duplicity that voters reacted with incredulity. Then anger. The silent majority in Ohio stirred to life with the realization that the Republican-dominated legislature was willing to make it next to impossible for citizens to petition their government for change, let alone pass a grassroots initiative with a super majority after 100 years of a simple majority — just to eliminate people power as a threat to partisan power.
Incensed Ohioans across the political spectrum fought back. They voted to preserve their majority voting rights and to constitutionally protect the right to abortion. Unfortunately, what state Republicans tried to pull on voters in 2023 was not a one-off.
Truth is the politicians who attempted to weaken our voting rights last year and ban abortion outright are not at all chastened by voters who saw through their deceit. They’re devising new ways to circumvent the will of voters on both abortion access and legalized weed.
Ohio Senate Republicans couldn’t wait to override the opinion of 2.2 million Ohioans who voted for the legalization of marijuana. They would decide which parts of the newly passed law needed to be chopped, redirected or diluted. Republicans in the Ohio House are still deliberating on how much of the citizen-initiated statute they will choose to honor or ignore.
Anti-abortion House Republicans also introduced a bill last week to impede the execution of Ohio’s new abortion rights amendment and summarily disregard the decision of 57% of voters. They want to take all authority from Ohio courts to interpret the constitutional provision on abortion access and reproductive rights and give it to — themselves.
In short, imperious autocrats in the Statehouse, intoxicated with power, refuse to accept or even acknowledge that sovereign power in Ohio rests with us, not them. They will dictate our personal choices, our parental rights with trans minors, what we can read, teach, learn, love.
And we will submit. Or we will marshal our defiance as birthright-defending American citizens and fight back.
2024 is on us. A most crucial state and federal election will determine if our enduring American experiment in self-governance is resilient, if we the people show up and are heard loud and clear, or if we let apathy and indifference give way to soul-crushing authoritarianism.
A federal abortion ban is on the ballot. So is a would-be dictator who attempted a coup against the country and us to stay in power. This is our new abnormal. Buckle-up. Resolve to activate your citizenship. You have skin in the game. Collectively, we can make noble history.
This commentary was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished here with permission.
Subscribe to CityBeat newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
This article appears in Dec 27, 2023 – Jan 9, 2024.