It’s a beautiful day with the sun peeking through a bit. We hope the weather isn’t a day early. If it’s only for a day, we’d much rather have it on Election Day.
Speaking of which, Who is Justin Bibb?, the piece on the Cleveland mayoral race that we teased in yesterday’s weekend note is up. It’s longer than usual but it people are engaging with it.
Also today we have a report on alleged “softening” of a bill to ban critical race theory in Ohio K-12 schools. The effort sounds well-meaning but as critics of HB 327 and the other Scopes-era bill seeking to ban CRT have noted, neither bill is necessary to begin with. So, Rep. Grendell, it kind of seems like you want applause for sticking a knife in where it doesn’t belong, and then pulling it half-way out.
We know our readers are too smart to believe otherwise, but there is no such thing as an off-year election. One of the reasons the country is in such turmoil today is that rational people aren’t always diligent enough to go all the way down the ballot and vote in judicial and school board and local counsel races. A lot of our narrow-minded legislators got their electoral careers started in just such “inconsequential” races because people were focused on the glamour seats.
That kind of political behavior puts the electorate in the position of the frog in the slow-heating pot. By the time the frog recognizes the danger, its legs are too weak for it to leap to safety.
We will offer some resources and some observations before the polls open [ i.e., we wouldn’t call them endorsements] but voters really need to do a little homework. As the saying goes, freedom ain’t free.
Also, tomorrow is the first Tuesday of the month, which means business owners — especially retailers and service providers — can look forward to the sage strategic advice from Julius and Jinida Dorsey in Face the Competition.
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