Voters should reject ignorance

The Ohio Senate, thankfully, pushed back on House Republican efforts to strip the executive branch of its power to manage a health crisis, including this pandemic. The Senate rejected a House amendment to give a joint committee of the Legislature power to revoke orders from the state's health director after 14 days. The amendment was an irresponsible and immature move on the public — and blatantly irresponsible — catering to the worst partisan instinct of divide and conquer. It is divide and conquer, at everyone's expense, at all costs regardless whether it will result in more deaths from the coronavirus. It is divide and conquer without regard to science or fact, or the safety of Ohioans. House members show no sign that they will back off from this strategy. For his part, our local House member, Rep. Douglas "DJ" Swearingen, R-89th District, rejected the notion that some of his GOP colleagues are embracing the pandemic as a grand conspiracy manufactured by enemies of the president and the prosperity he's brought to this nation. That too is blatantly irresponsible. Our prosperity is slipping away in the absence of leadership from Washington. While he rejects that nonsense, however, Swearingen did vote in favor of this amendment. He, along with other House Republicans, voted for an amendment that would have hijacked the health director's power to make decisions that should be made by a health director, not by politicians pandering for their own power on a topic for which they have no education, no experience and no understanding. The pushback from these politicians against a governor of their own party ignores the science, ignores the best medical advice and ignores common sense. Promoting ignorance in this way needs to be called out, and refusing to reject ignorant conspiracy theories such as this one and others amounts to tacit approval of them by men and women — lawmakers — who lack courage and conviction. State Rep. Dick Stein, who represents residents in Huron and Lorain counties, also voted for the amendment, and he is one of those representatives promoting ignorant conspiracies. He and other House Republicans are playing a dangerous game, in our view, gambling with the lives of Ohioans for political gain. Their support results in protests in Columbus with armed participants. Their support promotes uncivilized behavior. It is ignorant. It is irresponsible. It should be rejected by common-sense Ohioans of every type, of every party. * These state representatives voted for this irresponsible amendment: Cindy Abrams; Niraj Antani; Brian Baldridge; John Becker; Thomas E. Brinkman Jr.; Jim Butler; Jamie Callender; Rick Carfagna; Sara P. Carruthers; Jon Cross; Robert Cupp; Bill Dean; Anthony DeVitis; Jay Edwards; Mark Fraizer; Haraz Ghanbari; Timothy Ginter; Doug Green; Diane Grendell; Stephen Hambley; Brett Hudson Hillyer; Adam Holmes; Ron Hood; James Hoops; Don Jones; Kris Jordan; Candice Keller; Darrell Kick; J. Kyle Koehler; Laura Lanese; George Lang; JeffLaRe Lipps; Susan Manchester; Riordan McClain; Derek Merrin; Scott Oelslager; Thomas Patton; Rick Perales; Phil Plummer; Jena Powell; Bill Reineke; Tracy M. Richardson; Craig S. Riedel; Bill Roemer; Mark Romanchuk; Gary Scherer; Bill Seitz; Kent Smith; Dick Stein; Jason Stephens; Reggie Stoltzfus; Douglas Swearingen; A. Nino Vitale; Scott Wiggam; Shane Wilkin; Paul Zeltwanger; and House Speaker Larry Householder. * Correction: This editorial has been modified to reflect that state Rep. Gayle Manning and State Rep. Dave Greenspan did not vote in favor of an amendment to take authority away from the state health agency director.