On message
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 By Mike Maurer
Governor Strickland is admirably on message. From a viewpoint of either the Democrat Party, which is irrelevant to me but important to the policies that the major parties tend to promote, or anti-choice ideology, which is quite important to a free-market think tank, this is a good thing.
On the other hand, for anyone who believes in individual choice and free markets, it’s a bad thing. The point, of course, is that ideology is different from methods that promote or attack the ideology, and the governor has good game.
Here’s one of the central themes and memes, which the governor is quick to support: “I continue to believe for-profit charter schools are bad for the system.”
That’s a two-fer. Profits are bad. Oh, you know, it’s okay for jobs and things that are subservient to the public interest, and of course we want *you* to have tons of money and support, but the rest of those people are just stinkin’ rich, selfish and corrupt, unlike us good people in government, who are here to help you. Second, of course, is the awful beating on charter schools. It shows, at root, that the governor isn’t such a nice guy after all, in that at the very least he’s willing to put union interests above any number of individual children. How contemptible is that?
Where is the Ohio Republican Party on this issue? AWOL. I’ve lost track of it, but party pooh-bah Bob Bennett was recently reported to have said that the party is about enabling candidates, not about positions on issues.
Guess what happens when one party is consistently on message with anti-choice ideology, and the other party is consistently disparaging any message? Well, you don’t have to guess, you just have to observe. For the rest of his life, Bob Bennett will be hailed as one of the greatest party chairs of either party in Ohio history. And his achievements? That he kept the seats warm. And, uh, don’t go golfing, unless it’s okay to, uh, do so.
