Yes, that was my point regarding Kasich. You had mentioned planned parenthood specifically as the reason why you disputed his identification as a moderate. We can go into a deeper analysis of this though. However, I will point out that I already described him as a pragmatic conservative rather than a “moderate”. But on some level I think they kind of mean the same thing.
The reason I was looking for an example of a moderate was that essentially any moderate conservative is going to have a number of conservative positions. That’s why they are a moderate conservative. If they were all left wing positions, then they would be a progressive.
What liberal stance do you think Kasich actually supports? Kasich is pro-life, anti marriage equality (mostly), doen’t support anti-discrimination laws, is anti choice for women, defunds public education, lowers funding for access to healthcare for women, is for a balanced budget seemingly regardless of the status of the overall economy, mostly for the death penalty, against legalizing the less harmful drugs, wants to push charter schools,supports fracking, somewhat dabbles in trying to regulat entertainment (doesn’t like today’s R/PG standards), wants to do heavier checks on refugees (not sure these people are showing up with paperwork at this point), very much a let the states do federal government out, opposes Obamacare… just because but otherwise sort of wants to support healthcare (no real plan), not a supporter of raising the minimum wage, wants to lower social security benefits (they’ll get over it), opposes the estate tax…
It’s worth looking at a number of these issues in detail.
You mention abortion twice, (pro-life, anti-choice) and this is certainly his position. The reality is that this is not an extreme position though. Americans are about half and half on this issue. But Kasich’s position here is not extreme, in that he believes abortions are reasonable in certain situations, like rape or incest, or to preserve the life of the mother. This isn’t an extreme position any more than being pro-choice is an extreme position. For things like reducing access to healthcare for women, this really just ties into the whole abortion thing, as Kasich opposes Planned Parenthood due to their relationship with abortion services. But he’s said flat out that he does not at all oppose shifting that spending to other clinics that provide healthcare options. He just doesn’t like PP. And honestly, this link doesn’t HAVE to exist. Choosing to say that the government MUST support an organization which performs abortions (even if they do not technically use federal dollars for abortion programs directly), or else not fund any womens’ health organizations, is kind of creating a false dichotomy which doesn’t really benefit anyone. But simultaneously, I agree that those other non PP organizations really need to actually exist so that the net effect of cutting PP’s funding isn’t simply a reduction in services for low income women.
Saying he doesn’t support anti-discrimination laws is false. He signed EO 2011-05K, which established an anti-discrimination policy in the state government of Ohio. What would be more correct to say is that he has not universally supported any supposedly anti-discimination law, which is true. Probably the biggest fault on this issue, in my mind, has been that Kasich has been generally anti-gay throughout his career. However, I think that it gets more complex than that. Kasich is a pretty devout Christian, and as such, this kind of implies a rejection of LGBT lifestyles. And I think that it’s not necessarily fair to just demand that a Christian abandon their religious teachings. What’s important is that they do not allow those teachings to cause you to be cruel to people who behave differently (which is itself perhaps the most important Christian teaching), and in this regard I think Kasich does well. There was that moment in one of the earlier debates, where he was asked what he would do if his kid came out as being gay, and he didn’t really hesitate at all, and just said, “I’d love them. They’re my kid.” To me, this is a pretty no brainer answer, but certainly catches flack from the extreme right, who apparently thinks you should hate all gay people, and Kasich clearly doesn’t. He mentioned attending a marriage of a friend of his who came out gay, and I think this shows a fairly reasonable, honest take on the issue for someone of his generation. He isn’t an advocate of LGBT issues, but he doesn’t hate gay people or try to condemn them, or ostracize them. Certainly, he is a conservative on this issue, but he’s not a dickhead about it to the extent of some, like the folks who want to somehow overturn the legal precedents set by the supreme court at this point. Which is an important point, as he’s seemingly one of the few conservatives who has simply said, “Hey, this stuff is the law of the land now. We need to move on and get past it.” Which ultimately, is a reasonable take on the issue. He doesn’t suggest he’s going to somehow roll back things like marriage equality, quite the contrary. He realizes that while it differs from his upbringing (as it differs from probably the majority of Americans’ in his generation), this is the way things are moving, and it’s silly to try and stop history. Again, a conservative perspective, but a realistic and pragmatic one.
For defunding public education, I think this is an important point which has come up previously. The nuances of this budget move in Ohio are basically glossed over, 100% of the time, but those budget details are of critical importance when it comes to evaluation of this position. Kasich supported making a number of tax cuts, including cutting the tangible personal-property tax, which had provided a significant chunk of funding for public schools. Then, the state legislature had attempted to make a law that increased spending, and said that no districts would lose any funding. This part here is REALLY IMPORTANT, and is basically never talked about. This was put forth by REPUBLICAN law makers, in an effort to make certain that rich districts would continue to get as much funding as poor districts.
The big “cut to education” that Kasich made, was vetoing that provision of the budget. That is, he vetoed the part that said all the districts had to keep equal funding, and proceeded to cut public funding from RICH DISTRICTS, while preserving funding for poor districts. And this makes total sense, because those districts have communities who can afford to fund their schools at a local level, so those state funds are better used to help fund schools in poor districts where the local communities can’t cover the costs as well (and who also tend to have higher costs due to other social factors making things harder for their kids).
Ultimately, this “cut to education”, when you analyze the details of the budget moves he made, essentially amounted to a transfer of state funding percentages from rich districts to poor. This is not necessarily a bad move.
Potentially a bigger fault in terms of education for Kasich is that he has supported charter schools heavily, and they have not performed particularly well at all. Indeed, he ended up having to call for his head of education’s resignation after it came out that the guy had withheld failing charter schools performance scores when the state was evaluating them. But I think that perhaps the notion of supporting charter schools is not necessarily politically right or left, and isn’t really bad in itself (I went to public school and tend to support them when they are run correctly). Part of the point of charter schools is to explore new ways to educate our children, and that is a worthy endeavor. Certainly for the majority of our public school system, the status quo isn’t good enough.
In terms of supporting a balanced budget, this is not a conservative or liberal position in my mind… at least, it shouldn’t be. There’s nothing about progressivism which says you need to spend more money than you have. And in the case of Ohio, they’ve increased government spending (he’s been attacked for this in the primary). It’s just that he’s also grown revenues by even more, so the budget is now running a surplus rather than a large deficit. Again, I can’t really see this as left or right, but rather “good”.
In terms of Capital Punishment, Kasich actually issued more clemencies to Death Row than any other governor. As you say he’s “mostly for the death penalty”, but his position here is, again, somewhat nuanced. I suspect his reluctance to actually execute criminals if there is any doubt to their guilt again stems from his religion. I think this is one of the reasons I like Kasich. While I’m not myself religious, I think his take on Christianity is much more in line with what I think Christians are supposed to be about… And part of that is not killing folks. But he doesn’t totally opposed the death penalty.
For things like fracking, this isn’t an extreme conservative position either. And frankly, it’s benefited the people of Ohio significantly. I know a little bit about this area, as I live right in the heart of the Marcellas shale deposit, and I’ve seen the industry first hand. Natural gas harvesting can be done correctly, with minimal impact to the environment… but it’s important that it be regulated correctly.
(cont.)
