theres a special election in ohio today.

for the 1st time in the states history...the republican majority legislature put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in *august* (where turnout would be expected to be much lower than november...and liberal college students still expected to be out of state). the amendment would increase the threshold for citizens to bring forth future constitutional amendments to a 60% majority (among other rule changes). they currently just need 50%+1 to pass.

republicans are rushing this through because a pro-choice amendment got approved for the ballot in november and his expected to pass by a significant majority of ohio voters but prolly not 60%.

the republican plan looks likely to backfire as ohio voters came out in early vote numbers larger than the midterms. most citizens recognize this as an attack on the abortion amendment in november and are fired up about the state republicans attack on their rights.

ohio is pretty damned red. trump won it in 2020 by 8 pts. repubs pretty much hold all of the statewide offices except for sherrod browns senate seat.

so in order for a strong majority of ohio voters to vote for something 'liberal'...it means a significant amount of republicans voted for it.

so a ton of republicans are going to vote against this republican backed amendment on the ballot today. and theyre going to vote for the pro-choice amendment in november. likely by similar margins. we saw this happen in kansas. and we see this happen a lot when dem/liberal policies are on the ballot individually.

now...this isnt some semantic or passive issue...like raising a sales tax or changing the requirement for liquor licenses. this is a visceral core issue etched into the identities of each party.

so a bunch of republicans are clearly against the republican party on this major issue. and they will go out and vote against their own party.

then...they will go out and vote for republican politicians who are doing the very things that these voters are voting against. those voters will empower them with the ability to write laws to assault this intrinsic value that they previously voted to uphold/enshrine. an intrinsic value that those lawmakers make central to their political identity and blatantly show that they are against.

somebody please explain this behavior to me in a way that seems logical or reasonable. it just never made sense to me.