On Saturday, Ed FitzGerald spoke at Grounds for Thought in Bowling Green. FitzGerald is the County Executive of Cuyahoga County and has announced the formation of an Exploratory Committee to seek the Democratic nomination to run for Governor of Ohio in 2014.
FitzGerald is not the only higher-office holder to make a visit to Bowling Green in the last week. Ohio’s U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown, made an impromptu visit to Grounds for Thought last Wednesday (to speak about his support of a higher federal minimum wage), and this evening Ohio State Senator Nina Turner will be speaking on campus at 7 p.m. in 121 West Hall.
The College Democrats are hosting the event this evening, but College Democrats President Michael Hart made it clear to me that this evening’s event is for people of all political affiliations.
“The topic that Sen. Turner is coming to talk about is the importance of voting,” Hart said, “That’s something that is important to all of us.”
And while that is an important topic to Democrats and Republicans alike, an old political adage comes to mind: You can tell which party is thinking about you by watching which one comes around in the off (non-election) years.
Ed FitzGerald said a lot of things that I agree with at Grounds for Thought on Saturday, but just as important as what he had to say was the fact that he came here to Bowling Green, 18 months before the election, to say it.
The Democrat Party is no more the perfect political party than any other one is, but if you look at their proposed policies you will find that they care more about our society’s most vulnerable people than the Republican Party does.
And these days, when I say “vulnerable people,” I’m talking about anyone who has to worry about paying the electric bill or being able to afford gas to make it back and forth to work this week.
What the Republican Party relies on is that we will forget that we’re not rich. Or maybe they count on us all thinking that we are going to be rich someday.
FitzGerald spoke about this briefly during his stop at Grounds for Thought, saying that (current Republican governor) John Kasich favors slightly lowering the state income tax rate and raising the state sales tax.
“That’s getting rid of a progressive tax in favor of regressive one that favors the wealthy,” FitzGerald said.
Favoring the wealthy is the GOP’s modes operandi. For proof of this you need not look past the last Republican administration—though if you do, you will find this has been true since at least President Reagan.
George W. Bush sent us into two wars simultaneously, and started a new prescription drug plan, all while lowering income taxes to an unprecedented rate for America’s wealthiest people. This astonished most economists who said that never in history had America lowered taxes during wartime, and now we know why.
Bush and the Republicans then had the gall to blame the economic collapse on people who took home loans and couldn’t afford them, placing the blame squarely on the working class. That is nothing more than a big crock.
The economy tanked because of trickle-down economics that never seems to trickle, because when most rich people are given more money they do not create jobs, they pad their own bank accounts instead.
I know that modern sensibilities tell you that no politician of any stripe cares about you, and I will not argue that every single Democratic politician cares about every single person all of the time. But if you take a few minutes to look at the people that the political parties’ policies favor, you will find that Republican policies do not help you if you make less than about $100,000 a year.
And if you’re not sure what Democratic policies are, and you don’t want to take the time to look them up online, just go to a Democratic event and ask them.
You’ll know it’s a Democratic event because it is going on in a non-election year.
Respond to Matthew at
