It seems like there’s a lot of people out there talking about this little state. Most of them only know Ohio from the Drew Carey show or WKRP, some of them know us from a brief visit or a friend’s brother, but everyone seems to be talking about Ohio like they’ve got a stake in the fate of our state. We’ve become a choice in the political fantasy football league and it’s beginning to get tiresome.
I’m tired of hearing people talk about Sherrod Brown as if he’s anything but a rank and file politician. The Ohio Democratic Party had to strong-arm Hackett out of a _primary_ so that he could win it. That’s just pitiful. It’s a primary, kids! Not the actual election, but a primary. That sends a pretty clear message: _Brown can’t win a primary unless he’s unopposed_. You just know that DeWine’s campaign will use this to their advantage.
It’s bad enough that we have so many problems with corruption and questionable behavior in our existing state government. We have [legislated bigotry](http://www.smartvoter.org/2004/11/02/oh/state/issue/1/), we’ve had [scandals](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/national/14coin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin_) [galore](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002800204_ohio12.html), we’ve got people involved with [national scandals](http://www.rollcall.com/issues/51_72/news/11875-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS). We stink of corruption. Now, along with that lovely sewer-smell that only lawless politics can bring, we have petty schoolyard tactics employed in the running of primaries. Our party politics stink.
I’m not thrilled with Hackett dropping out–he could have made a change for good, but he’s giving up. That’s his choice, but I think that he could really have been good for Ohio. It’s hard to stay in the race when you’ve been so betrayed and sometimes you have to know when to quit. I think that his vociferous statement about the party’s tactics has exposed problems with the ODP that the general public didn’t know about, and maybe that will be the good that comes out of this disappointment.
If anything, this has just cemented my decision to move back to Independent status in the voter’s booth. I won’t be affiliated with _any_ party, because affiliation means support. I can’t support underhanded tactics like pressuring donors to cease funding a candidate, I can’t support a party that breaks promises. That means I can’t support _either_ the Democratic or Republican parties. Hell, I can’t even tell the difference between the two anymore.
Jerry Adkins Says:
