With it now being E-Day+1, we should turn our focus to the age old question of "What's next?".
National
The last few weeks we have seen and heard a few stories that had "key" Republicans saying things like now might be a good time for compromise. President Obama will not moderate. He is a radical with views so far out of the mainstream that his party just took a pretty good thumping. This is NOT the time for compromising with that.
Repeal Obamacare
This one piece of legislation is responsible for most of the reasons why the GOP had such a good night. This law needs to be repealed in whole. While I do believe that health care reform is a concern of the American people, they are not willing to surrender their freedom in order to have "free" health care that costs jobs and devastates the economy.
Cut Spending
This country is in a fiscal crisis of its own making. We have been writing checks that our treasury can't cash and that will ultimately become a national security problem if it hasn't already. The nation needs to be put on a fiscal diet and the Republican majority in the next Congress must be disciplined in this regard.
Pledge to America
As a statement of principles, the Pledge touches most of the hot-button issues. My fear is that the Pledge will survive about 100 days and then go in to a drawer somewhere. The Pledge needs to be a "good start" and not just a publicity stunt.
Ohio
Like much of the rest of the country, this state is in crisis. We've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. We've got an $8 billion hole in our budget. And we've suffered from a significant number of people voting with their feet and leaving Ohio.
As the new administration takes over, the challenges are as great as the expectations to overcome those obstacles. John Kasich and the statewide team have a LOT of work to do to lower the burden on the business climate and attract jobs so that the unemployment rate will come down to Earth.
We need to fix it. And unlike when Ted Strickland campaigned to Turn Around Ohio, Team Kasich simply must restore the faith and actually get something done and show results as quickly as possible. Expectations are high and failure is not an option.
Once again, Republicans run the table in this state and now is the time to advance our agenda. There are no excuses. We've seen what the Democrats did when they were in charge. We must guard ourselves against the creeping statism and elitism that plagued this state for the last ten years or so. We have to restore fiscal sanity and return Ohio back to its former glory.
Competence Matters
Republicans need to redeem themselves for the mistakes of the past and Ohioans will once again have faith in their government. To do that, mistakes have to be minimized. Government will need to be reduced to essential services that are delivered on time and with appropriate customer service.
Ohio can't afford to have another run of playboys like Marc Dann or the scandal-plagued staff choices of Ted Strickland. The people that Republicans choose to serve in this administration must be properly vetted and understand that public service is not about themselves.
Elections Have Consequences
It is on us now... The Ohio Republican Party says that they have learned their lesson and are now ready to lead. Let's hope that they are because we have serious problems to tackle and this time it is personal. If we blow this, it will be a very long time before the electorate will trust us again.
One of the things that I noticed is a significant amount of participation by the Libertarian Party in these elections. They are gaining momentum and are fueled by those who have lost confidence that the Republicans were willing and/or capable of reviving fiscal responsibility and their commitment to limited, smaller government.
Better Days Are Ahead
Ohio's best days are ahead not behind. Good things are on the horizon. We can get there.
