The Donovan Adkisson Show

Donovan discusses the setback for the GOP in Ohio where they attempted to circumvent the will of the people by holding a special vote in August that would require changes to amendments to the state's constitution to have a 60% supermajority.  Even after moving to stop August votes, they decided it would be a good time to attempt one since an amendment to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution is on the ballot for November in Ohio.  They had no idea how badly they would lose.

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Donovan
Questioner of things | Secularist | Podcaster | Author | IT guy | Independent | Safe from Unwanted Pregnancies

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.

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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.