Ignorance Will Kill Democracy

Portrait of Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter
Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter pointed out the problem with civic ignorance and the rise of someone like Donald Trump who claims he alone can fix what’s wrong in the country. Souter mentioned this issue in 2012.

Civic ignorance is a public not knowing how government works. This happens by public schools cutting civics classes and others not being interested in politics.

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Republican David Yost Grandstands And Uses Food Stamps To Raise Campaign Money

screenshot of Ohio Auditor of State David Yost giving testimony to US House Committee on Agriculture concerning Food Stamps
Ohio Auditor of State David Yost giving testimony to US House Committee on Agriculture concerning Food Stamps

The Ohio Auditor of State David Yost participated in a hearing of the US House Agriculture Committee on July 6th. As I wrote in a previous post, Yost presented his ‘evidence’ of ‘fraud’ from an audit his office conducted on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka Food Stamps) in Ohio. It was obvious Yost missed the real issue with the ‘fraud’ he found and he then used his appearance in DC to raise money for a future higher office campaign.

For his testimony at the House Committee on Agriculture hearing, which was titled: “Past, Present, and Future of SNAP: Understanding Error Rates and Fraud“, David Yost wrote:

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Stop Scapegoating The Poor Please!

imagine of different amounts of food stamp coupons

Once again a politician, setting themselves up for higher office, goes to the ‘kick a poor person’ playbook to build some conservative cred. Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, who likes to kick things conservatives like to kick – public education, for example, – is now setting his sights on the low hanging fruit of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – better known as food stamps. Yost has a funny idea of fraud that fails to match reality.

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Opponents Of Park Levy Use False Premise

logo for Hancock Park District

Election day is March 15th and there will be a levy replacement request from the Hancock Park District. The millage will be the same as the levy that is expiring but the park district wants to benefit from increased property values since the original levy was passed eight years ago. You might wonder who could be opposed to a tax levy for parks. There are people against the levy and they are using a false premise to justify their opposition.

There have been a couple of letters-to-the-editor in my local paper here in Findlay that give an example of an argument that is false from the get go.

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A Good Time At The Ohio Secular Summit 4.0

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On February 10th I attended Secular Summit 4.0 at the Ohio State House in Columbus. It was hosted by CFI NE Ohio. It was the second lobby day I attended and this time I tried to as prepared as I could be to speak to my representatives. As luck would have it, I got to speak to my state Senator and he seemed positive toward the secular issues I presented to him. Seculars need to do more in person lobbying of our elected officials in addition to phone calls and written messages.

The Secular Summit is a chance for secular people around Ohio to get together for a morning meeting then in the afternoon we have appointments with our state representatives and senators. 

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