via Instapundit from the American
Ohio has had a bad run these past years. When I left for DC to work many years ago Ohio had one of the lowest tax rates in the country and the state was thriving. Upon returning, I told my wife how great Ohio was and we were shocked at what we found. Liberal Democrats were in place and little republicans acted just like them. Ohio, my home state that I love, was looking like Michigan and losing jobs almost as fast while taxes continued to go up and up. We actually pay higher taxes than we did in the People's Republic of Montgomery in Maryland.
Ohio is dying. Dying at the hands of do-gooders supporting legislators at all levels garnering power in the name of the people in order to keep and grow their power. They have, like blue states, harnessed the power to bribe large sections of the electorate and money people. They are killing one of the best states in the nation that used to be a bell weather state that quietly suggested the future of the country through large and small industry, agriculture, a vast higher education system and politics. As Ohio went, so went the nation.
Now, as the nation goes, so went Ohio, downward to the "common good" to the detriment of all that is good. Small sections of society were held up by special interest groups and politicians as those that deserve the ideal of an America that gives grace. Large chunks of the economy were taken from the majority to finance this grace, but those chunks, in both large and small amounts, started to erode the financial base and goodwill of Ohio's people and employers. Both started leaving for states that envied what Ohio had, thus those other states did something smart, they lured them with lower taxes and less government. They went. Not Ohio, they, our people, our best, went. Ohio became a coastal state in thought, but without the coast.
As the outward trickle of "doers" grew, politicians, organizers, special interest groups and bureaucrats drew from the past, failed models of ideals. They bemoaned that if only we "helped" resurrect failed ideals such as (forced) government supported unions, larger governmental intrusion into the failed sections of society and more taxes as examples, Ohio would prosper and become a "good" state, but not if we returned to our old hayseed ways. Ohio became a union state with the government, including teachers, as the largest union. A union of bureaucrats.
There are a few who belie this trend through entrepreneurship and the ability to keep ahead of the blackmail payments to the federal, state and local authorities. I don't believe they are all Republicans or Democrats, they are driven to do their best. They give their best to their workers, their community and the state.
Below is such a story.
A Tale of Two $100,000 Jobs — A Tale of Two Americas
(Be sure to link through to the BusinessWeek story)
Ohio needs entrepreneurs, but most will go elsewhere to find a better environment in which to do their magic. Our environment will not improve until Republicans stop acting like liberals.
Until then, Ohio will continue its decent into a third-state environment. Like Michigan.
