AN ARTICLE FOR STARK CO CONNECTED POLITICIANS TO READ! ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO APPROVE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP'S JOB PERFORMANCE

AS "ALL-IN" TRUMP SUPPORTERS

JIM RENACCI & CHRISTINA HAGAN

ARE EITHER

IGNORANT OR CONSUMMATE OPPORTUNISTS

&
A "MUST" READ FOR
EVERYBODY ELSE

Yesterday morning as I sat down to breakfast on a scrumptious cinnamon roll and  coffee, as a usual contemporaneous routine I opened by absolutely favorite "for readers" e-mail which list noteworthy reading material for those of us who wish to be informed persons.

LINK to the Lewis Vanity Fair article.

The Stark County Political Report is not fond of government bureaucracy:  local, state and/or federal.

However, the reality of the human condition is that an important function of government is the general welfare as undergirded by provisions in the U.S. Constitution and the Ohio Constitution which provisions are a grant of authority by ordinary citizens for elected and unelected officials to look out for our good.

Because of the polarization in Washington and Columbus and, yes, even sometimes at the local level of government on the basis of partisan political party considerations and/or the political ambitions of particular politicians, Americans by and large yearn for the draining of what President Donald J. Trump has aptly coined as being a "political" swamp.

For those of us who "hunger and thirst" for government and government officials which/who put personal/political party interests in at least second place in making decisions which affect the finances, health and safety of we—the hoi polloi, a guy like Trump and his promise to "clean out the swamp" has at least a "let's take a look" appeal.

But "a look" is all Donald J. Trump ever merited.  The Report is steadfast in an abiding desire to have political swamps cleaned out whether they are in Canton, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio or Washington, D.C.

Trump, Renacci and Hagan (or Gibbs) are hardly folks that will do the job.

They are all rock-ribbed Republicans that will do nearly anything for their individual political ambitions or if they are in control or strongly influence Republican Party processes they have been and will again be "all-in" for their political party over the interests of everyday people.

Now nearly one year in office, it is clear that if anything "the swamp" is swampier and his administration is largely staffed by incompetent people.

And here is a specific example.

On Friday night the Republicans finally got a major piece of legislation (not ready for presidential signature because the Senate and House have to come together on differences).

At the last minute, Trump insiders (perhaps the DeVos family) tried to have inserted a provision that would have exempted Hillsdale College from endowment taxation (LINK).  Democrats and four courageous Republicans stopped the "carve out" for the supposedly philosophically conservative (does this include "fiscally" conservative?) connected institution.

Why doesn't Trump tweet about that "swampish" maneuver?

The value of reading Lewis' article is to put clothing on an uneasy feeling abroad in our country that the evidence is that Trump et al are generally inept/incompetent governors and need to have the brakes put on them.

As we all know, the primary test of being in good with the President is to blindly follow and support whatever he says and does.

"Unquestioning political loyalty to Donald J. Trump" is exactly what the SCPR sees, for the most part, as the political posture of current Republican 16th district congressman Jim Renacci (now running for governor of Ohio; 93%/94% of the time favoring Trump positions  [LINK]) and current Republican Ohio 50th District state Representative Christina Hagan.

When Renacci defeated then-incumbent Democrat John Boccieri in the 2010 off-year congressional elections, he badgered Boccieri about voting in the 90% category with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The turn of events shows what an utter hypocrite Jim Renacci is.

Unless and until Renacci and Hagan disavow "the 'unquestioning' loyalty Trump mantra," Stark Countians, indeed Ohioans (Renacci) should not consider for a nanosecond voting for either.

Either Renacci and Hagan don't have the ability to think for themselves or their political ambitions have gotten the best of them.

Hagan, in particular, is offensive.

Hardly a woman for other women and, for that matter, men to model after her.

Let's see, among her "ANTI-middle-class agenda" positions, Hagan:

• wants to take the right of women to have control of their own bodies in instances of rape, incest and life threatening health conditions away,
• wants to jeopardize the health of all of us in eliminating the power of health care providers to require those who deal with all of us to be vaccinated with a flu shot,
• wants to gut the Affordable Care Act so that millions lose their insurance because it becomes unaffordable,
• is "bananas" for gun use expansion apparently even "automatic" weapons the lack of control of which has empowered indoctrinated, insane and demented to mow down scores of unsuspecting Americans

On her website, Hagan devotes space to telling one and all what a good person she is.

Kind of unbecoming for the faith that many of us know, to wit:

How many times have we heard self-lauding "I'm-a-good-person" statements only to see the person "fall-from-grace" in good time.

That Hagan has bragged to local Republican leaders that she is out to create a Hagan political empire hardly bespeaks a person who subscribes to the Good Book admonition:  "Not by power or might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord." (Zechariah 4:6)

Christina Hagan is all about political power and might by which she wants to impose her values on the rest of us.

Thankfully, it appears that Hagan's political game plan is falling apart.

Her father, John, recently lost his trustee's position in Marlboro Township.

Her Ohio 16th congressional district race is floundering.  She has bragged that she would raise $15/16 million for the May 8, 2018 GOP primary and $1.5 million for the general election.  She has yet to raise her first $1 million.

Should Hagan decide to abandon the congressional race (which the SCPR thinks she will) and opt to run for a remaining two years in the Ohio House (the 50th District which includes her home in Marlboro Township), already filed Republican candidate Reggie Stoltzfus has told the SCPR that he is not about to step aside for her.

Stoltzfus attended a Mike DeWine for governor rally in North Canton Ohio on November 13th.

But no Christina Hagan.

Think the probable GOP nominee for governor joined now by Jon Husted as his lieutenant governor candidate  (sorry! Jim Renacci) didn't take note?

While the SCPR thinks that if elected governor will be supportive of the president when it is reasonable to be so, but like the current governor (Republican John Kasich) The Report believes DeWine will not hesitate to be unsupportive (unlike Renacci and Christina Hagan) when Trump is at his best outlandish self which seems to be nearly all the time.

Getting back to Hagan absence at the DeWine rally; think that in a Hagan/Stoltzfus contest in the May 8, 2018 Republican primary for the 50th Ohio House District that DeWine/Husted won't weigh-in (at least behind the scenes) on behalf of Stoltzfus?

Does not bode well for a Hagan political empire emerging in Stark County.

Christina Hagan is a case of a little success (getting the Ohio House Republican Caucus appointment to fill out the term of Todd Snitchler [March, 2011]) going to her head

As an "under 30" she has ballyhooed herself as an up and coming political power to be reckoned with.

Hagan has gotten quite a bit of national notoriety in extreme-right-wing-religious-Republican-Party-connected politics of late.

She mistakes this sheltered political existence for general electorate acceptability.

Nonetheless as we know from the election of Donald Trump, anything can happen in our political system and that "anything" can be quite damaging to our democratic-republican system of government.

Fortunately, Trump has continued to "shoot himself in his 'political foot'" and therefore he is disfavored by an overwhelming majority of Americans.

Hopefully, his discredit among most Americans will taint the candidacies of Jim Renacci and Christina Hagan so that Stark Countians and Ohioans will not have to suffer through political lunacy at the state of Ohio and the county (16th or 50th districts) level.