---
VM/Text Line: 762-325-1313
Creators & Guests
What is The Donovan Adkisson Show?
Welcome to 'The Donovan Adkisson Show' with your host Donovan Adkisson! Get ready for thought-provoking discussions on politics, technology, current events, and the fascinating aspects of the human experience. Donovan's in-depth analysis and captivating storytelling will keep you engaged and informed. Tune in as he navigates through the complexities of life and offers valuable insights that will leave you pondering long after each episode. Join the conversation on 'The Donovan Adkisson Show' and expand your understanding of the world around you.
[theme music]
One must wonder if Republicans will ever, ever, ever learn.
And I'm specifically talking about every single time that they make a move
to basically try and thwart democracy.
The latest situation, the latest example of this, was in Ohio.
Now I'm sure you've seen this on the news. They had a special election yesterday.
Yesterday being Tuesday, August 8th. And what is so special about this is a
couple of things. Number one, the GOP in Ohio,
which is the majority, had already decided that
they just weren't going to do any more special elections in August because
turnout was so low. There was absolutely no reason to do this.
People just didn't care enough. They were either still on
some some form of maybe a summer vacation.
They just didn't care enough. So they were like, "Nope. No more special elections."
And then a measure winds up on the ballot for November
to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution. And
suddenly, the warning bells went off and all the
GOP headquarters and caves and wherever
Republicans go when they're not making complete asses of themselves
in various states. And they were like, "Oh no, no, no, no.
We cannot allow this." Because in Ohio, like most states, if you
want to vote on a constitutional amendment, it
basically has to be 51 percent.
I love how they put this. 50 percent plus one.
Okay, so maybe it's 50.1 percent. But what they were looking at,
and they looked at the numbers, that a-- I'm not going to say it's a
pro-abortion. It's a pro-abortion rights. Looking at the polls,
was over 50 percent. Some as high as 58 percent would vote in the positive,
in the affirmative, to enshrine such rights
in the state constitution. So what did the party of law and order
decide to do? Did they decide that they were going to
push forth a very positive narrative PR
blitz, try to do their best to get people on their side
for the November vote? You know, the thing that you would normally do. You
go out and you talk to your constituents and you
explain the issue to people, and that's the way it works. Those for,
those against. Try to explain the reason why you're either for something,
or you explain the reason why you're against something, and
and you try to sway people to your side of the equation.
That's the honorable thing to do. That's the right thing to do.
Is that what the GOP in Ohio did?
That would be no.
That would be no. They decided that, okay,
how about we do this? How about we hold a special election, a special
voting scenario in August, even though we we voted that
we're no longer going to do these special sessions in August?
But let's do one, and what we're going to try to do
is we're going to get the citizens of Ohio to vote,
to allow, to let's change the rules. Let's change the rules. We don't care
about majority rule anymore. To hell with democracy. We don't need it.
We're going to change the rules. We want everybody to vote,
and if it passes, then all amendments are going to require
a 60 percent supermajority. A 60 percent supermajority. That is exactly
what was proposed. And they did this because in all of the
polling, except maybe one, which was probably an
outlier, pro-abortion rights being enshrined in
the Constitution for the state of Ohio, maxed out at about 58 percent. So if they
could get this rule changed so that it would require a
60 percent supermajority, then they felt sure
that the abortion amendment in November would fail.
That was their goal. Now, if you don't think
that that's not a deceptive power grab, you haven't been paying attention.
This is ridiculous, and this isn't the first state that this
type of thing has been attempted. And I think with the
exception of one state, the attempt to change
the amendment from 50 percent plus one to a supermajority of 60 percent,
one state actually got it passed, and it didn't have anything to do with an
upcoming vote on an amendment for abortion
rights. It had to do with taxes. And of course, there's always going to be
the scenario where misinformation, just flat-out wrong information,
the PR machine working overtime to fool people
into voting for the wrong way. And that's something that I learned
many, many, many years ago, and one of the reasons why I love
mail-in ballots is I would always get on the day of the election, I'd get to
the voting precinct, I'd stand in front of that machine,
and I would read these amendments that I'm voting on,
and not anything that was as important as a constitutional amendment for the
state that I live in, but the things that you would always have
other than, "Okay, I'm voting for governor or voting for president," whatever.
And I wouldn't understand them. I could not make an informed
decision with my vote that very day. So when it was changed in the
state of Georgia, which is where I reside,
that you didn't have to have any special circumstances to request a
mail-in ballot, that's exactly what I did. And then I would see what was on
there. And granted, I mean, you could always get
a sample ballot, and you could see what was on there.
And I would do my research. So when I felt comfortable that I understood
exactly what it was that I was voting on, that's when I would vote
and, of course, I'd send in my mail-in ballot, because
to hell would go in and standing in a polling precinct.
That's absurd. I'm not doing it. And I say all of that because
when the Republicans lost this particular
scenario, of course, they're trying to blame it
on lack of information or the short time span from when they
decided to do this to when they actually held the vote.
I mean, they're going to blame everything and everyone else other than
the fact that they are on the wrong side of history
when it comes to a woman's bodily autonomy. No matter
which way you cut this, they are
wrong. The Supreme Court may have overturned Roe v. Wade,
and of course, that's what started this shit show.
And honestly, I think I'm okay with it now because
we're seeing the dominoes fall state by state by state by state,
where these measures come up for a vote and they don't go the way
that the Republicans are counting on them to go.
And they're left scratching their heads. Or, in the case of Carrie Lake
from Arizona, failed gubernatorial candidate, once again, election fraud.
That's exactly what she started claiming. Election fraud.
Had problems with the scanners. And yeah, they did have a problem
with a scanner. It was human error. But as was reported,
the voting was never held up. Nobody's vote was not counted.
Nobody's vote was counted more than once. Nobody's vote
was switched. The GOP lost fair and square, and democracy
won fair and square. It's like Dennis Willard, who's a spokesman for the
opposition campaign, one person, one vote. He's the one that called issue one.
That's what this was called. State issue one. A deceptive power grab that was
intended to diminish the influence of the state's
voters. That's exactly what it was. Quote, "Today, or tonight, rather, is a
major victory for democracy in Ohio," Willard told a jubilant crowd at the
opposition campaign's watch party. "The majority still rules in Ohio." And, of
course, the president, President Joe Biden, he hailed Tuesday's result.
He released a statement. He said, "This measure was a blatant attempt
to weaken voters' voices and further erode the freedom of women
to make their own health care decisions. Ohioans spoke
loud and clear, and tonight democracy won." This is what we want.
This is exactly what we want. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you
that Democrats are always right and Republicans are always wrong.
However, once the GOP decided to hitch their wagon
to Donald Trump to back that asshole, they have pretty much lost in
everything that they've attempted to do. I mean, even look at the
their majority in the House. It is so slim. And we expected that. We
honestly expected it. It's one of those things
where whichever side of the equation that the president
is on, like if a Democrat president gets into office, then normally the
House and the Senate flop to the opposing side. This time it
didn't quite work that way. We had a very, very
thin majority in the Senate by way of the vice president, and then
that got kicked up a notch when two senators from my home state,
Democrats, won their elections, which surprised the hell out of
Republicans, I'm sure. And that red wave that was supposed to have taken place in
2022 never materialized. And so what you're
seeing here is this is the same thing that is happening
time and time and time again. The GOP will push a narrative. They'll
push an agenda like they did here in Ohio. We've got to
make it harder for the citizens of the state to vote on
constitutional amendments. We gotta make it harder. And then when they
lose, which they do nine times out of ten,
they will not accept the fact that they are on the wrong side of history.
They will not accept the fact that the citizens
of the state that they represent don't agree with their shenanigans.
I don't care if you're pro-abortion or not. None of us are
pro-abortion. We're pro-choice. It's not pro-abortion. It's pro-choice.
And that's the thing. They always float it like you're either pro-life or you're
pro-abortion. No, you're pro-life, which that's
your prerogative, or you're pro-choice. And honestly,
everybody's pro-choice. It just so happens that your choice is
you're on the side of, "Okay, I don't want this person
to have an abortion." And honestly, it's not your call.
If it's your body, then don't have an abortion.
But if it's Jane Doe down the street, you do not have the right
because of some misguided religious belief or whatever it happens to be.
You do not have the right to sit in judgment of her
and tell her what she can and cannot do with her body.
It's not your body. She's not your slave. And she's not the slave of the state or
federal government. She is her own person. She has full
autonomy. And that includes if she decides that she
does not want to put herself through-- maybe it was an accident, maybe it was
rape. Who cares? Doesn't matter. It's her choice. It's her
decision. And the only damn reason why anybody out
there is so pro-life-- and you can challenge me on this one
and give me some data and I'll gobble it up. And if I'm wrong, I'll
admit it. But those that are proponents of
pro-life, anti-abortion, do it from a foundation of religious
faith. And the sad part is they don't understand
that the United States is not a Christian nation, was not founded as a
Christian nation. Our government is not a Christian
government. Our government is a secular government where everybody is treated
equally under the law. They can worship the
way they want to worship. They don't have to worship.
We don't have countrywide sanctioned religion.
We don't have a state-by-state sanctioned religion.
We're all allowed to believe or not believe
as we see fit. And I believe you're going to continue to see
what happened in Ohio will continue to happen
state by state by state where the GOP, for some damn reason, keeps underestimating
like in Ohio. Early voting was off the charts
and there were definitely more women voting than men.
And I am, for one, I'm so happy to see that.
They're taking up for themselves and we should also take up for them. Doesn't
negate them taking up for themselves, but we need to back them.
So I firmly believe that we're gonna continue to see this
this type of thing. They're gonna continue to try
and they're gonna continue to fail. And every time they fail,
they're gonna blame somebody else or they're gonna come up with some
nonsense conspiracy theories about election fraud,
votes being changed, the machines were broken,
voters were disenfranchised. Just a litany
of bullshit reasons. But see that right there just demonstrates
yet again the problem that the GOP has. They can't stand fair and free
elections because the majority of the time
they lose. It's the truth. Let me know what you think.
Were you following this thing in Ohio with any kind of interest?
And which side of it did you come down on? Were you for democracy
or were you for fascism basically? Minority rule.
That's not what this country is. Let me know.
You can leave me a voicemail or you can send me a text. That number is 762-325-1313.
Again that's 762-325-1313. Or you can email me.
That's your speed. show@donovanedkisson.com.
I'd love to hear from you. Like I said, it doesn't matter which way of the
the issue you come down on. I'm just curious.
I'm just curious. But like I said, I think
this is like the fifth or sixth state. And you're going to continue to see this.
It's surprising the hell out of a lot of people. It's a pleasant surprise
for the Democrats. It's a horror show for the Republicans. Anyway, this is the
Donovan Ed Kisson show. I am Donovan and until next time, take
care of yourselves.