Age of Discontent

According to a report released by the Ohio State Patrol, Preble County outrank Ohio’s other 87 counties in the amount of heroin seized by the OSP inside its boundaries.

When the Congressional aide for Warren Davidson answered the phone on Thursday, May 4 — he said yes, Davidson was supporting the American Health Care Act. I explained it would hurt Preble County — launching the aide into a sales pitch. I cut him off and the call ended with an awareness that my opinion was unwanted and unheard. Why would it be heard? I live in a gerrymandered district with a 2-1 spread favoring the GOP.

Davidson’s snafu

The concept of a representative democracy is quite simple: the representative listens, responds and acts in the best interest of the constituents. In theory this sets up a House where each representative is fighting for what is best for the folks back home. In this type of House, Davidson’s hierarchy of priorities would fall something like this (accepting the current reality of monetary influence):

1. Voters
2. Ohio
3. Nation
4. Party
5. Donors

His vote for the AHCA demonstrates his allegiance falls this way:

1. Freedom Caucus
2. Special Interests (Club for Growth, Freedom Works, etc.)

Or vice versa.

After the bill passed, Davidson issued a statement which includes these sentences,

…Reforms to Medicaid, work requirements for able-body adults, and defunding Planned Parenthood are no small victories. Americans are actively suffering under Obamacare….

Health care jobs have been on the rise for about five to six decades. Click on image to read more.

Even though the statement directly contradicts reports of a growing health care economy (and its importance to Ohio) the ‘reforms to Medicaid’ are very problematic for his constituents which I attempted to explain to his aide.

How ACA Helped Preble County

Click to enlarge

In Preble County, the ACA significantly reduced the number of uninsured — one report puts our uninsured at two percent, a 63 percent decrease in five years. This is due to the Medicaid element of the Act. The ACA is also helping in our battle with heroin.

Another report suggests the poor and elderly will be most injured should the new legislation become law — which means Preble County is, once again, in the crosshairs since we are an impoverished, aging population. But, none of that matters, I suppose, because at the center of the debate is the government’s function. Is it to stay out of the way or is it to make a more equitable society?

Solve It Yourself

Help wanted sign in downtown Eaton.

I live in a community where there is no shortage of people advising the disadvantaged that ‘all they need to do is git a job.’ People spew the advise with little regard concerning a person’s skill set or available employment. In this week’s community paper there were six job offers, mostly entry level work (and presumably without affordable health care). This is also a community which, according to the local rumor mill, has workplaces where some employees are using ‘hard drugs’ like heroin, meth, cocaine and LSD.

The path out of this dilemma is not an aggressive paring down of health care, but rather funneling individuals with addictions through recovery services. And whether, Davidson, the Freedom Caucus, the Club for Growth or Freedom Works approve, this will need to be funded by tax dollars. Localities like Preble County are too financially strapped to solve it without state and/or federal dollars.

Bill Attacks Vulnerable

After the House bill passed, both Ohio senators commented on it and as expected, Sherrod Brown (Democrat) was not supportive. He said,

This bill is heartless, it is bad for Ohio and it will leave real Ohioans struggling to afford care.

Republicans like Ohio’s governor John Kasich and Senator Rob Portman weren’t supportive either. They railed against the AHCA. Portman said,

…this bill does not do enough to protect Ohio’s Medicaid expansion population, especially those who are receiving treatment for heroin and prescription drug abuse…

Problems Inside Davidson’s District

Last month, Portman visited my hometown of Eaton — touring a 104-bed women’s mental health and addiction treatment facility which opened here in January. Portman, after listening to some of the residents at the facility, said,

“A lot of them have been through treatment programs before, but what they found here that really works for them. A lot of it is the setting, but more of it is the curriculum here. They really take these women through the brain, what happens in the process of a disease like this.”

The article also quoted the head of a Preble County agency — an organization at the forefront of tackling our drug problem. The spokesperson said,

“What we know is there is not enough treatment to cover the rising epidemic and the amount of people who need treatment in the county.”

From my personal circle I know this to be true. Two individuals in my family circle had to seek treatment outside the county with one heading out of state.

This is what residents inside Ohio’s 8th Congressional District are dealing with and gutting health care will exasperate the situation.

We have two overwhelming needs in Preble County — increasing the availability of livable wage jobs and affordable mental health/drug addiction services. These are two situations Davidson could assist us with — if he chose to focus his energies on what the District needs instead of promoting some far-right ideology.

What Can We Do?

The short-term solution in a heavily-favored GOP district is for the moderate Republicans to find a viable primary candidate to run against Davidson in 2018. A longer-term solution is for voters to demand that Ohio abandon its gerrymandering approach to U.S. Congressional Districts. It’s the only way voters can be assured their voice is heard. It will also promote a more unified populace since we Americans are willing to accept an opponent if the ‘fight was fair.’ Without a level playing field, we Americans are subjected to a top-down management system where representatives are nothing more than salesmen for special interest groups.

Afterthought

When I read books about the colonial era, I’m always struck by the fundamental difference between the New England colony, populated mostly by educated Puritans, and the Virginia Colony, founded as a business venture and populated with the ‘refuse’ of Great Britain — which included my paternal line. In many ways, the distinction between the two major political parties were drawn in our colonial past. The New England colony was definitely influenced by Christianity and many of its laws promoted — and created — a more economically balanced society. Their political offspring would become the blue sections of the country.

The Virginia Colony operated much differently. It never hid its class structure and the poor were manipulated by the ruling elite. In time many of Virginia’s lower class were known as mudsills. Mudsill is a term lost to history. It was the bottom plank of a log cabin. The weight of the cabin would drive the plank deeper and deeper into the mud creating a solid foundation for the edifice. The term is fitting, even today, as the class of people who suffer the most in our society are those at the lowest end of the social-economic pile.