Letter To the Editor: The ORP: sipping champagne and hoping for useful idiots?
BY MOLLY PITCHER
If you haven’t been following Ohio politics lately, you should definitely tune in to witness Ohio Republicans stumble through the treacherous waters of power struggles, factions, and lies. In a nutshell, you’re watching the unraveling of a party. You’re watching the elitists of Ohio come together (Mean Girls style), to suppress the people who want true reform and a real Republican party that aligns with the national GOP platform and America First Agenda.
I give it ten years before Ohio becomes the next Arizona - a once solidly red state, now lucky to be purple. Most of Ohio is red, with the exception of the major metro areas, but there are outliers like Delaware, which indicate that Ohio is changing and the Republican party is doing a terrible job of combating the opposition. What those in the Ohio political sphere won’t tell you is that they spend a majority of their time fighting their own party base, rather than fighting the opposition. Those in charge are too busy playing games, screwing with, and taking down other republicans to worry about the democrats.
And that, folks, is how Delaware turned purple. The republicans don’t want you to know that they spend hours each week attacking members of their own party with social media, covert emails, hit pieces, and collaboration with the mainstream media of Ohio - all in the name of “protecting Ohio”. No, what they are protecting are their own self-interests, including, but not limited to their wallets, networks, fake friends, and power (which we grant them by the way).
Your homework for this week is to watch Franklin County and Delaware County. Franklin, which is now, overwhelmingly blue and Delaware, which can’t help, but go purple, are poised to prop up a second-rate candidate with no passion about elections and no interest in being anything, but governor. The Ohio Republican Party and its county cohorts should refrain from endorsements in primaries, but like a small child being drawn to puddles and mud, the Republican party can’t help, but meddle in endorsements, while making an absolutely mess.
And rather than take a cue from counties like Butler and Warren, who remain solidly red, because they endorse bold outsiders, Franklin and Delaware will most likely endorse a squish republican, pat themselves on the back for a job “well done”, and then cry to the public that they can’t help that their counties are under attack by blue constituents and candidates (i.e democrats).
In layman’s terms, the people of Ohio want a freshly made Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich, and the Ohio Republican Party wants to give them a slice of 4-day old cold cheese pizza, while congratulating themselves for serving them anything at all, and then arrogantly stating that they are lucky to even get pizza, even though that’s not what we asked for. Ohio republicans are not interested in serving us what we demand, they have self-interests that do not align and therefor, they will serve themselves the chicken sandwich and serve us the cold pizza, while pointing the finger at the democrats and blaming them for the bait-and-switch.
What do we do? Well, in the famous words of President Donald Trump, we fight! We fight back the swamp in Ohio. We get off the couch (yes, pause Netflix) and get involved. It’s the only way. The establishment wants you to take the lazy route, and not even at least tell your neighbors what is really going on. They are banking on a base that will just take the slate card you receive in your mailbox and vote down ballot, without doing your homework first. But Ohio has never been a population of useful idiots.
Politicians don’t want to be your friend, they don’t like you, they are using you to get ahead, while some fawn over how nice they are, or how many times they come to visit your county. The people in the Ohio Republican party who tout loving Donald Trump are the same people who voted to endorse Mike DeWine (twice) and that includes after his Covid Reign where they handed the state over to…a blue candidate, Amy Acton. Now, this same party is hoping you’ll forget that they approved of DeWine and Amy Acton in 2022 because it’s a new day and they need you to accept Vivek, so he can go fight the good fight against Amy Acton.
To those in Ohio Republican Party who think, “it’s better to be in the circle hating life, than to not be in the circle at all.” (thank you Cady Heron): it’s obvious how desperate you are to sit at the cool table. But the cool table will never really accept you. Only a select few can be a part of the Champagne Sipping Elitist Club. And no matter how much of your soul you sell, you’ll never be in it. They will use you for their own gain and then dispose of you when your life cycle has ended. To quote Étienne de la Boétie, “There can be no friendship where there is cruelty, where there is loyalty, where there is injustice. And in places where the wicked gather, there is conspiracy only, not companionship: these have no affection for one another; fear alone holds them together; they are not friends, they are merely accomplices.”
All eyes are on Ohio’s political realm this election season. From now until May, watch how the Champagne Sipping Elitists and the Useful Idiots align themselves to prevent real change and reform in Ohio’s Republican Party. Do we dare to overcome them?
