Ohio: Big Win for the Good Guys

Three months ago, the Ohio Governor Jon Kasich signed the nation’s most draconian bill to gut union rights, in order to pander to millionaires, billionaires, and corporate criminals.  Nobody was surprised as he transitioned to his current job after working for the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, aka Fox.  I still remember Sean Hannity’s “fair and balanced” campaign ads on his behalf, presented as news.  The people of Ohio rose up, and at least for now, Kasich has failed to transform Ohio into a totalitarian corporate dictatorship, like Fitzwalkerstan, formerly Wisconsin.

John Nichols covered the story:

Opponents of Ohio Governor John Kasich’s push to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights—as part of a national push by newly elected Republican governors to silence opposition to their cuts in funding for public education and services — needed to collect 231,000 valid signatures to force a referendum that would override anti-labor legislation enacted by Kasich and his allies.

That was a tall order. But the labor and community groups that have come together to defend public employees, teachers, schools and services have exceeded it —by more than one million signatures.

With petitions carrying 1,298,301 signatures packed in 1,500 boxes carried by a semi-truck, organizers of the We Are Ohio campaign and thousands of their allies marched to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office in Columbus Wednesday—one day before the deadline—to file the paperwork necessary to force a November vote on overturning Ohio Senate Bill 5 and Kasich’s attack on labor rights… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Nation>

Kasich’s law is on hold until after the vote this November, where it is expedited to be permanently repealed by a wide margin.

Rachel Maddow provides more detail with FOP official Mike Weinman.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I could not help note the comment that Weinman made: "Our folks couldn’t understand how our friends could do something like this to us."  He was referring to the betrayal that he and other Republicans felt.  What rank-and-file Republicans need to understand is this.  Unless you are a millionaire, a billionaire, a corporate criminal, a racist, a thoroughly hypocritical supply-side pseudo-Christian, a Bircher, etc., the Republican Party is NOT your friend.

Congratulations to the people of Ohio!  But watch out.  A pair of big ugly Kochs are pointed at your butt!