Imagine waking up one morning to discover that your Congressman is none other than Jim Jordan. That’s what happened five years ago to me and tens of thousands of residents living in Oberlin, Elyria, Norwalk, Bellevue, and Fremont: cities which politically range from progressive to middle of the road. How did Jordan, an ultra-conservative, flame-throwing obstructionist, and conspiracy promoter, get dumped on us?
Gerrymandering. That age-old political trick was employed as an advanced art form in Ohio’s Fourth District. Governor Gerry is undoubtedly grinning at us from the depths of the underworld for giving our district’s map the likeness of Wile E. Coyote, with Oberlin, Ohio capping the coyote’s snout and the City of Celina dotting his tail.
Hi folks, my name is James Sherck. This is the first of what I hope are several blog postings about this important race for Ohio—and for the country. I am a retired judge who racked up 23 years of judicial service—twelve of which were on the Ohio Appellate Bench. I am a native of Fremont, Ohio, living in or near the city my entire life. I have a sense of what’s fair and reasonable, and in my view, Jordan’s overall tenure in Congress has been neither.
I can’t blame Jordan for the gerrymandering, as he didn’t draw the map, though his Republican cousins did. But I can opine that Jordan has no business being in Congress, as he is simply clueless on what it means to be a legislator.
The voters in Ohio’s Fourth crave a government that works! They want their representatives to maintain our infrastructure, solve the opioid epidemic, and come up with a fair and just solution to immigration, environmental, and health care issues.
But, to get things done in Congress you first must want to solve the problems, then be able to work with members of your own party, and ultimately make some friends on the other side of the aisle. You have to be civil; you have to look at the problem from multiple angles and be willing to compromise. Jordan is incapable of doing any of this. Jordan doesn’t want to come up with reasonable solutions to problems; he doesn’t want to solve anything.
Jordan is a guy who gets off throwing a wrench into the works. In the Nov/Dec 2017 edition of Politico Magazine, former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner referred to Jordan as “ a legislative terrorist.” Proof of that is his recent effort to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is just doing his job. Needless to say, this impeachment effort has no legs among the vast majority of House Republicans. However, none of this matters to Jordan who creates chaos by dragging in red herrings and setting off smoke screens at every turn in the Capitol Building, trying to get his name into the news cycle.
Now, contrast Jordon with Janet Garrett, his Democratic challenger. Jordan doesn’t understand the job. Janet Garrett, the ultimate consensus builder, does.
Janet Garrett served as a Peace Corp volunteer, and she taught Kindergarten for over 30 years. The Peace Corp experience instilled in her the desire to pass laws that help everyday folks. In decades of teaching hundreds of Kindergarteners, Janet dealt with children who, by definition, had not yet reached the legal age of “reason.” Yet, Janet developed educational skills that changed behavior and caused these children to listen, to respect, and to take time to think about things.
What better skill sets could one bring to the current unreasonable, dysfunctional House of Representatives?
To learn more about Janet Garrett visit her website at http://www.janetgarrett.com/.