The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Politics => Topic started by: Ohio Barbarian on April 08, 2012, 05:09:37 PM
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I posted this earlier on Fire Dog Lake, and it was written for that audience. However, I thought some of you here might be interested. Here it is:
When John Kasich was elected governor not quite two years ago, and the Republicans took over the legislature and all state offices, I thought we Ohioans were well and truly screwed. After all, he had worked for the evil Lehman Bros. Kasich is best known nationally for his support of Senate Bill 5, the law that effectively outlawed collective bargaining for public employees. Fortunately, it went down to ignominious defeat with 61% of Ohio voters tossing it out last November.
But Kasich hasn’t been all bad. In fact, he has pleasantly surprised me on a number of occasions. For example, the main thrust of his Medicaid reform has been to shift more money to home health care for senior citizens, and he had to take on the powerful nursing home lobby which was backed by the Koch Bros. to do it. And he succeeded. That took some balls.
He backed off his campaign proposal to privatize the Ohio Turnpike. He stunned the oil lobby by calling for taxes on oil and natural gas drilling. I don’t agree with his proposal to use that revenue to eliminate the state income tax, but a Republican Governor actually calling for a new tax on a powerful business is unusual, to say the least. He vetoed a bill that would let private property owners suck all the water they wanted out of Lake Erie, to the stunned amazement of both the Republican establishment and the environmental lobby.
And he has opposed Republican proposals to resurrect Senate Bill 5 piece by piece, causing such a divide in the state party that the state chairman recently resigned. When asked about it, he said “The people have spoken. I heard them.â€
Then today, on Meet the Press, he surprised me again. Five times. First, he said that the government does have a legitimate role to play in providing health care for poor people and for retirees. Second, he declined to endorse Mitt Romney or any other Republican candidate for President, and predicted that the presidential race in Ohio would be “tighter than a tick,†instead of following the typical party line and predicting his state would vote for his party’s eventual nominee. Then, he directly asked Senator Dick Durbin if Congress wanted to wait for “riots in the streets†before they finally got their act together and did something to create jobs.
He refused to endorse the Ryan budget, saying that creating jobs should be Congress’ number one priority. He also said he believed in “reasonable†government regulations of business.
Maybe Kasich is remembering that his father was a mailman. Maybe he wants to get re-elected and knows if he takes the hardcore Republican line he will be thrown out on his ear. Maybe he learned something from the Senate Bill 5 debacle. Maybe he’s discovered his inner Eisenhower. Maybe he really does want to do what he thinks is best for Ohio and realizes that the Koch Bros. agenda ain’t it.
At any rate, if John Kasich is any example of the big, bad, scary Republican I will get if I vote for a third party candidate with whom I mostly agree, I’ll take my chances on seeing someone like that get into office over someone like Barack Obama any day.
Happy Easter, Governor Kasich, from a card-carrying member of the Socialist Party USA.
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It is not the job of Congress to create jobs.
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It is not the job of Congress to create jobs.
Nor the president, nor anyone else. They are, however, obligated to get the **** out of the way of the people who want to earn an honest dollar. Tell me that this administration has had any interest in helping business of any size.
I posted this earlier on Fire Dog Lake
Stopped reading there, because I knew the rest would be bullshit.
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I said even before he ran for Governor that Kasich was one to keep an eye on. I'd support him if he should run for president in the future. He was a key player in the Republican revolution back in the 80's. he was the House point man that worked closely with Sen. Pete Domenici in the Senate on many Fiscal pieces of legislation.
What will scare some folks is he is a fiscal/social conservative.
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He has done a great job in Ohio in just a few short years. Watched him on TV tonight, and he is someone i could wholeheartedly support for Prez in the future.
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No socialist has ever been able to tell me the attraction to socialism. Do you adhere to the concept of from each according to their means, to each according to their needs ?
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No socialist has ever been able to tell me the attraction to socialism. Do you adhere to the concept of from each according to their means, to each according to their needs ?
Of course they do, it's just that they have no means and their "needs" are what most of us would consider wants. Therefore, from each according to their means (they have nothing), to each according to their needs (they "need" everything).
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Of course they do, it's just that they have no means and their "needs" are what most of us would consider wants. Therefore, from each according to their means (they have nothing), to each according to their needs (they "need" everything).
That works out pretty well for the guy/gal who has nothing and needs everything.
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No socialist has ever been able to tell me the attraction to socialism. Do you adhere to the concept of from each according to their means, to each according to their needs ?
I'm a socialist, not a communist. There is a difference. Not my job to try to educate you here.
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It is not the job of Congress to create jobs.
REALLY? Well, not surprisingly, I completely disagree. Anyway, the post was specifically about a perspective on John Kasich. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not interested in the D v R meme. For me, there is no difference.
I just thought some here would find it interesting that a socialist would find some redeeming qualities in John Kasich. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps most of you are as blind as the Obamabots on Political Wire or Democratic Underground, who would be screaming that I am some kind of Republican or Fascist for saying so.
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I'm a socialist, not a communist. There is a difference. Not my job to try to educate you here.
If you are a socialist, as you say you are, you must have one or more good reasons for being one, what are/is those/that reason(s) ?
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I'm a socialist, not a communist. There is a difference. Not my job to try to educate you here.
Yeah, communism is supposed to be voluntary after we all evolve to some theoretical Marxist point that doesn't exist. Socialism is the use of force to take from one group and redistribute it to the government.
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I'm a socialist, not a communist. There is a difference. Not my job to try to educate you here.
You are doing a piss poor job if you are trying. Plus, you are waisting your breath trying to convert anyone to socialism here.
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If there is a difference, it's not much of a distinction. It's like trying to differentiate raw sewage from regular feces.
But whatever.
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I don't think the guy is much of an avowed socialist. He's not very steeped in it that I can see.
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If there is a difference, it's not much of a distinction. It's like trying to differentiate raw sewage from regular feces.
But whatever.
The main difference is communism is so Utopian as to forever remain unachievable. Sort of like the radical atheist's idea of Heaven. Whereas socialism is entirely achievable because it is the use of government force to take from one group and to redistribute to another (usually government bureaucrats). All one needs for socialism is a government willing to use force to redistribute wealth.
And then that right there is problematic because wealth is created and can only be destroyed and not redistributed. So the world is left with all of the bad and there is no good.