What Tim Ryan does better than any Democrat - Jennifer Rubin
From the WaPo.
no paywall
https://wapo.st/3CLxtZ0
Granted, J.D. Vance, the Republican Senate nominee in Ohio, is a lousy candidate. His fundraising is anemic. The venture capital investor and millionaire book author once suggested women should stay in abusive relationships, analogized abortion to slavery, and opposed abortion bans with exceptions for rape or incest. A few years back he also suggested that if a 55-year-old blue-collar worker gets laid off, he might “not be able to find a good-paying job for the rest of his working life.” Yeah, he’s that bad a candidate.
However, not every Democrat has been able to capitalize on a radical Republican’s flubs. It’s especially hard in a red state such as Ohio. But Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) is not just any Democrat. Here’s how he responded to Vance’s fatalism about Ohio jobs:
“JD Vance wants to give up on Ohio. You know what I say to that? Screw You.
If that’s what you learned in California, leave that there.”
(snip)
On transitioning to clean energy, he focuses on Ohio’s chance to become the “arsenal of energy.” He’s not running from President Biden, who’s coming to the state to champion a new semiconductor manufacturing plant. “This is a huge opportunity. The CHIPS Act that we passed is all about reshoring high-end manufacturing jobs,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Intel is going to invest, what they’re saying, up to $100 billion into Ohio to manufacture these chips that have helped — driven up inflation that we need for our cars and all the technology.”
(snip)
Ryan instead brings the conversation back to the real issue. “But what we’re saying is, are we going to preserve the woman’s right to choose at the end to save her own life? I mean, come on. Like, should the government really be in there? That sounds very anti-American.”
As Ryan noted, “the extreme position” is Vance’s, meaning “if you’re raped, you are forced to have the rapist’s baby, where there’s no exceptions at all.” He reiterated that forcing young rape victims to travel to another state is “insanity.” He added, “That’s the extremism we’re talking about right now. And we are talking about 50 years of established law, the status quo. That’s what I’m for that seemed to work pretty well for the last 50 years.”
In short, Ryan refuses to let himself be made into a liberal caricature. Ryan supported the Biden-backed, job-creating bills that the vast majority of Republicans opposed. And when it comes to abortion, Ryan simply will not concede any moral equivalence between forced birth and pro-choice positions. “Extreme” amounts to empowering “J.D. Vance or Ted Cruz or anybody else,” he says, to make critical health and family decisions for women.
No wonder Ryan has been doing so well. The Democratic agenda (jobs, pro-choice) is popular. If Democrats are smart, they’ll also run on it and make sure voters understand who the actual radicals are.
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