Short Time

Senioritis

As a teacher we called it “senior-itis”, the “disease” that affects the graduating class sometime during their final year of school.  They  are“done”:  with school, with parents, with being “kids”.  They already moved on: to college, work, the military; whatever was coming next.  As a teacher and a spring sports coach, it was always my challenge – how to get them through that last assignment, term paper, or test; and how could I keep them motivated on the track?  

The one thing you could count on from them was honesty.  They just didn’t give a damn.  And in my last year as a school district employee, I could completely relate.  You think thirteen years of school is long, try thirty-five and a half years in education.  I did my job – but I had little tolerance for bureaucratic nonsense.  I’m sure the District Office sighed with relief when I finally handed in my keys.

Career Politician

Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine had a long and distinguished career.  He’s been – wait for it – county prosecutor, state Senator, US Congressman, Lieutenant Governor, US Senator, Ohio Attorney General, and, at seventy-two years of age, the Governor of Ohio.   He’s seventy-six now, term-limited into retirement at the end of 2024.  There are no more statewide campaigns for Mike DeWine;  talk about senioritis.

Mike DeWine has always been an old fashioned, Senator Bob Taft of the 1950’s, conservative Republican. He’s never been a MAGA guy. But he does represent the conservatives near his rural home in Cedarville, Ohio: the fundamental Christians of Cedarville College, the Roman Catholics of his youth,  and the great mass of Ohio’s farmers’ vote.

Covid

The big test of his first term in office was Covid.  DeWine did what the national Center for Disease Control and his own Ohio Health Department said.  He closed down the state, mandated masks, and did everything he could to stop the spread of the virus.  That worked – until the more “MAGA” majority of the state legislature threatened to remove his health emergency authority.  DeWine pushed as far as he could, then he let his Health Director, Amy Acton, resign to take the fall.  He re-opened the state, and removed many of the emergency provisions.  But he maintained much of his authority to act in a future emergency.

Sure DeWine signed off on the First Energy deal, using billions of Ohio tax dollars to back their old nuclear reactors.  The Republican Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, is serving twenty years in Federal Prison for taking a sixty million dollar bribe to get the “deal” done, but the investigation ended with him.  And DeWine was willing to fabricate and mis-represent the Issue One Amendment that passed by 57%, allowing abortion rights in the state.  DeWine is a true-believer, a religious Right-to-Lifer.  Even now he’s trying to find ways to dial the Issue One Amendment “back”.

“SAFE Act”

So there was little expectation that DeWine would veto the latest MAGA legislation. House Bill 68, the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation” Act. It would ban medical treatment for trans-gendered minors, including drug and surgical interventions (though surgical interventions aren’t done in Ohio already).  That was also “paired” with a bill to ban transgendered athletes from competing in school sports.  

The Governor gave an interview with WCMH news anchor Colleen Marshall last week.  Marshall is known for asking tough questions in a nice way, and not allowing politicians to dodge specific answers.  So when Marshall asked about whether DeWine would sign the “SAFE” Act, she wouldn’t allow  him to bluff through the response. 

And DeWine seemed very sincere.  He said he talked to the parents of transgendered kids, and to those who wanted medication controlled.  He also talked to the doctors who treat transgendered issues at Nationwide Children’s Hospital here in Columbus.  In fact, DeWine seemed like a man trying to make a reasoned decision based on the needs of those few kids (3300 under eighteen treated in Ohio in the past ten years). 

Party Line 

But Mike DeWine generally follows the “party line”.  The national line is that LGBTQ is a “Democrat” thing.  Also, there’s a potential super-majority that could override the Governor’s veto.   And there are other issues in Ohio where the Governor and the legislature will conflict.  Is it really possible the DeWine would pick this fight, and veto the “SAFE” Act, because it’s the right thing to do?

It must be senioritis, “short time”; that feeling of liberation that comes from not having to run for office anymore.  Friday Mike DeWine vetoed the legislature’s attempt to further the MAGA agenda.  He rejected the “SAFE” Act.

The transgendered kids, one of the most vulnerable groups in the state, aren’t out of the woods yet.  The State Legislature may well override his veto, and the transgendered kids might still be faced with having to go out of state to get their care.  But, just like the beginning of Covid; the former prosecutor, Senator, Representative, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General stepped away from politics for a moment.  He did the right thing for kids.