Marilou Johanek

It didn’t take long. The new legislative session began in Columbus with Republican chieftains in the state throwing the future of public education in Ohio under the school bus.

Ohio finance bro Vivek Ramaswamy, who made bank off capital gains, not invention, dripped with derision for working Ohioans and all the Trump supporters responsible for his new position when he unloaded on American culture in his elitist rant last week.

Secular public schools should not be the new religious battleground, but that’s what they’ve become in Republican-ruled states pushing Christianity into what ought to be religiously neutral environments. 

Never underestimate the fury of women facing dystopian hell. They will regroup, resist and never retreat. This fight for equal and unalienable rights will be epic.

On a trip to Ireland, we ducked into a Dublin pub to grab a quick pint and wound up getting an earful on the American presidential race from nervous Europeans. Their anxiety about the U.S. election was off the charts.

Ohio Issue 1 would ban gerrymandering and replace politicians on the redistricting commission with 15 citizens representing each political affiliation. But Republican politicians are desperate to dupe voters into letting them continue to rig the game.

Are we the frogs in the boiling frog metaphor, Ohio? Have we grown numb to the everyday outrages of historic corruption, extremist lawmaking, abuses of office, attacks on voters, and attacks on rights? We will soon find out.

Judging by his foreword, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance appears to be a true disciple of the Project 2025 dystopian vision of a homogeneous, hierarchal society of power that would have women surrender social agency and bodily autonomy to put men in charge.

Political gaslighting is having a banner election year, whether it's Trump calling Jan. 6 thugs who beat police officers "great patriots," or Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine pretending anti-gerrymandering reform is the real gerrymandering.

Project 2025 looks to impose publicly-funded religious education on America. Ohio already has that. Not only is the state handing out $1 billion to subsidize private and religious schools, the recent capital budget provided construction funding too.