Democrats are outraged by President Trump\u2019s actions, but few Republicans are saying anything against him. In fact, many Republicans are defending the President, even using disproved \u201cconspiracy\u201d theories to justify his actions. What will it take to get Republicans to acknowledge his abuse of power?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete Nix, my first Principal, had a favorite phrase:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cfigures lie, and liars figure\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0He knew that you could make numbers say whatever you wanted them to say, and that sometimes you had to use something simpler:\u00a0\u00a0common sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to use some figures here, and hopefully in the end it will make common sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Franklin County is in the center of the state of Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0The State Capital, Columbus, is located there, as is THE Ohio State University (along with Columbus State, Capital, and Otterbein.)\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a big, sprawling town, with the Columbus city limits pressing up against farmland on the edges.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s not just Columbus City. Dozens of smaller towns from Grove City in the south to Worthington and Westerville in the north house the suburbs for the industry and businesses that thrives there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 1.2 million people lived in Franklin County in 2016.\u00a0\u00a0799,673 of them were registered to vote.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s a pretty high number of registrations. When you subtract those less than 18 years old and those who aren\u2019t US citizens, over 90% of eligible voters were registered.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Ohio, the Party candidates for office are chosen by an election called a Primary. Only those voters who declare that they belong to a political party can vote for the candidates in that party. The \u201cdeclaration\u201d is made at the table where they get their ballot: they ask for Democrat, Republican, Green, or Non Partisan. Then they get to vote in that party\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The March 15th<\/sup>\u00a02016 Primary election on was important, a \u201chigh-turnout\u201d Presidential Primary.\u00a0\u00a0On the Democratic side it was in the middle of the Hillary versus Bernie battle. On the Republican side Donald Trump was just emerging as the eventual winner.\u00a0\u00a0Still, less than half of the registered voters showed up to vote, in fact, only 41%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That 41% was split pretty evenly between Democrat and Republican, about 20% and change a-piece, with less than one percent voting in the Green Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a \u201chigh-turnout\u201d primary election, 20% of the registered voters determined who was going to be the candidate for office for each political party. The turnout in the general election in November was closer to 70%, but by then the candidates was already picked. It was down to the \u201cbinary choice,\u201d Republican or Democrat. There wasn\u2019t a menu of options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all of this figuring, so what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Franklin County is pretty evenly divided between the political parties. But most of the Congressional Districts in Ohio are not. They\u2019ve been \u201cgerrymandered\u201d to heavily slant to one Party or the other, so that Jim Jordan\u2019s 4th<\/sup> District will always be Republican, and Joyce Beatty\u2019s 3rd<\/sup> will always be Democrat. Since the \u201cparty outcome\u201d of the general elections is pre-determined, the representative in those districts is determined in the majority party primary election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And who votes in those primaries? It\u2019s the twenty percent, the most highly motivated \u201cmembers\u201d of the political parties. And those most motivated tend towards the more extreme, less moderate voters. In those \u201cgerrymandered\u201d districts, it is that high motivated twenty percent who determine the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not just true here in Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0In South Carolina the First District dilutes the Democratic town of Charleston by including the southern half of the town with the beaches and islands up and down the Atlantic Coast.\u00a0\u00a0It stretches from the Georgia border, through Hilton Head and Edisto Islands, up through Folly Beach, Fort Sumter, and on up the vacation coast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For six years Republican Mark Sanford represented the First.\u00a0\u00a0Sanford was a conservative Republican, but as a former Governor of the state, had a higher profile in Congress than most.\u00a0\u00a0He was known for his strong stands against public debt, and his unusual (for a Republican) criticism of President Trump.\u00a0\u00a0Sanford spoke out against the Muslim ban, and Trump\u2019s frequent \u201cuntruths.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Regardless, only four Republican Congressmen voted for Trump proposals more than Sanford did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Sanford\u2019s criticism was too much for the President. In the 2018 primary election, Sanford had an \u201ceasy\u201d opponent in Katie Arrington, a state representative. But Arrington received a tremendous boost from a last minute Presidential tweet. Trump called Sanford \u201cvery unhelpful\u201d and \u201cnothing but trouble\u201d just hours before the polls opened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a primary election, and the \u201cmotivated few\u201d chose the candidate. In a surprise upset, Arrington won, 33,153 to Sanford\u2019s 30,496. When the \u201cmost motivated\u201d voters got to pick, they followed the President\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the Republican Party perspective, Arrington\u2019s victory wasn\u2019t helpful. She wasn\u2019t as strong a candidate as Sanford, and she was seriously injured in a car accident midway through the general election campaign. In November, for the first time since 1981, a Democrat won the seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that didn\u2019t do Mark Sanford any good. And perhaps more importantly, it taught the rest of the Republican Congressional delegation a lesson: go against the President, and get \u201cprimaried\u201d out of office. Donald Trump could lay a heavy \u201cTwitter\u201d blow on any opponent: either stay in line or face \u201cthe base\u201d aligned against you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the actions of the President become even more outrageous, Congressmen confront the question of impeachment and removal from office. The Democrats are filled with legitimate indignation, but most Republicans are silent. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Twenty Percent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Mark Sanford<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Public Criticism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Profiles In Courage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n