WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:07.040 Initiatives, which are which our voters supplied ordinances to have a sixty percent threshold 2 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.679 instead of fifty. And it's probably driven by the fact that Planned Parenthood is 3 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:14.960 putting out tens of millions of dollars to get abortion on demand passed in the 4 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.679 state of Ohio. And there are some demagogues who on the left hand or 5 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:25.079 the right to talk about, well, this is a citizen proposal that people 6 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:29.839 like Scott Sloan will be sitting around somewhere in a Mason backyard speaking to his 7 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:32.880 neighbors and say, you know what, we had to pass a new ordinance. 8 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:36.439 We had to pass a new law, and suddenly this bubbles up from 9 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:41.200 the battles of democracy and then we really citizens take control of their government. 10 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:45.240 Sounds good on paper, but in reality that's not the way these things exist. 11 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:49.840 Of course, Frank LeRose a good friend of Buddy Lrosa. Frank LeRose, 12 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:53.880 it's the Secretary State in charge of voting in the state of Ohio. 13 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.679 And Frank LeRose, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Frank, 14 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:07.799 can you educate Scott Sloan who's lost his way on this issue? Yeah, 15 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.519 you're right, Well, this starts with some special interest group with an extra 16 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:15.599 grind in deep pockets that comes into Ohio and they hire hundreds of people with 17 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:19.760 flipboards to put an issue on the ballot, and then they spend possibly tens 18 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:23.920 of millions of dollars to try to get whatever their pet project is engraved into 19 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:29.400 our state constitution. And that's really the point here. Constitutions exist to lay 20 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:34.640 out fundamental rights like the right to free speech, not self incriminating, freedom 21 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:38.200 of assembly, keeping bare arms, those kind of things really fundamental rights, 22 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:42.400 and also to establish the basic framework work of government and separate branches of government, 23 00:01:42.439 --> 00:01:47.840 separation of powers, these kind of thing. Constitutions don't exist for pet 24 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:52.840 projects like no matter how you feel about them, marijuana or for that matter, 25 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:57.439 casinos or abortion just doesn't belong in the state constitution. And certainly Ohio 26 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.879 is an outlier in allowing a majority to amend our States Founding Document. And 27 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:07.000 we need to fiction as far as the other states. Can you educate to 28 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:12.840 misinformed about other states? And where is Ohio? Because it doesn't actually occur 29 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.479 where citizens get together, you get one hundred thousand votes, I'll get one 30 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:20.840 hundred thousand people to sign it. It doesn't work that way at all. 31 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.199 But how does Ohio fit into the scheme of all the other states when it 32 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:30.479 comes to proposing new laws. So most states recognize that legislating should be done 33 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:35.120 in the state legislature, where they debate it in both chambers and have a 34 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:38.680 vote on it and then it goes together. That's where common legislating should be 35 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:44.240 done. Most states do not allow something as foundational as their constitution to even 36 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.280 be amended by citizen initiative. Of nois and I'm fine with citizen initiative, 37 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:53.000 but there are only seventeen states in the country that allow citizen in initiated constitutional 38 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.400 amendments. So we're already an outlier, one of seventeen out of the fifty 39 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.159 that even allows citizens to amend their constitution. And of those seventeen, I 40 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:06.199 think it's nine or ten of them that have safeguards in place, such as 41 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:09.759 a higher threshold, or even in some states plan For example, in I 42 00:03:09.879 --> 00:03:14.599 believe it's in Nevada, the issue has to be on the ballot for two 43 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:20.639 consecutive elections before it's approved. Florida requires a sixty percent threshold of the voters 44 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:24.719 to amend their constitution. Something is important in the constitution, should require a 45 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:30.319 consensus, a bipartisan consensus of the citizens before you amend the constitution. So 46 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:35.000 to pass the law, whether you like it or not, there's committee hearings 47 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:39.520 Republican Democrats, there's arguments made in subcommittees and committees. Then it goes to 48 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:45.520 the whole General Assembly and it takes many months. Issues are raised, what 49 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:47.960 about this problem? What about that problem? How does this new law fit 50 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:53.159 into the constitutional scheme? Do we have notice requirements, what facilities have to 51 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:57.960 do these procedures? What are the training the people? You have multitude when 52 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.840 it comes to an abortion or other issues of constitution, of statutory problem and 53 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:08.960 the reason to keep this in the legislation go ahead, and it's still subject 54 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:12.759 to referendum, right because it's the people where all real power rests. Don't 55 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:15.759 like what the legislature does. With a simple majority vote, the people, 56 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:21.680 as has been done in Ohio, can referendum and essentially a citizen veto of 57 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:26.680 any law of its past. Again, a constitution is very different from the 58 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:31.199 legislative process, and so months and months and months pro con notice requirement and 59 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:34.959 so the way these things get on the ballot now that Planned Parenthood writes their 60 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:42.480 own law. They determine all these difficult requirements about waiting periods, medical conditions. 61 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:48.079 Planned Parentute determines the qualifications of the abortionists. Planned Parenthood determines whether teenage 62 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.800 girls can get it done, notification of parents, planned parentoo determined sists. 63 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:57.839 If this one through the legislative process, there'd be months and months of cogitation 64 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:00.839 of thinking of testimony, should we put this in? Should we not put 65 00:05:00.839 --> 00:05:03.920 it in? And then more debate on the floor. None that the great 66 00:05:03.959 --> 00:05:08.199 debate takes place. Then the law has passed. And as you just said, 67 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:12.000 if citizens living in Mason or wherever they are, say, you know 68 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:14.920 what, I don't like that law, which is eighty four pages long. 69 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:18.360 I want to resend that law. The citizens still have the right to go 70 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:25.879 through the recision process and take it away. But this particular Planned Parenthood abortion 71 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:32.360 law is being conjured up and drafted by Planned Parenthood itself. They hire activists 72 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:36.839 to go around college campuses to get the signatures. Then it's put on and 73 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:41.399 there's no amendment to that law. You say yay or nay on the law 74 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:46.120 by Planned Parenthood. Is that correct? That's correct? And really This is 75 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.480 why we don't have a direct democracy. We have a republic where the deliberative 76 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:55.439 process occurs in an elected state legislature that is accountable to the people. We 77 00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:59.839 then can referend them if we don't like what they do. But this kind 78 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:02.720 of thing, a constitutional amendment that has tens of millions of dollars worth of 79 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:09.279 ads run, is subject to demagoguery and listen, abortions just the latest it 80 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:13.079 could be. The next thing is minimum wage. There's a group that wants 81 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:15.839 to put a fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage with an automatic inflation of desture 82 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:19.800 that would kill small businesses. Who knows what the next Bacamamy ideas that are 83 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:23.680 going to come down the line are that people want to put in our constitution. 84 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:28.639 My purpose is this, we should not be legislating via constitution. Saved 85 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:32.839 the legislating for the legislature, and save the constitution for fundamental rights and the 86 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:36.000 nuts and bolts of how we govern our state. And Frank LeRose, isn't 87 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:43.399 it true that the left wing activists are the ones that are supporting not raising 88 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:49.360 the fifty percent threshold at sixty because Columbus is largely now a Republican c there's 89 00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:54.800 Republicans everywhere and said they've lost at the ballot box. They've lost the five 90 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:58.839 constitutional offices. They've lost the House, they've lost the Senate, they've lost 91 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:02.319 the Supreme Court of a High they've lost the governorship, lieutenant governor. And 92 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:06.759 because they've lost at the ballot box, they want to circumvent the votes of 93 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:13.920 the people to directly pass laws to demagogue the issue. Do you agree that's 94 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.079 it. They know that they cannot enact their radical left wing agenda through our 95 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:21.079 state legislators. They want to go around it and legislate be a constitution that's 96 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:25.240 dangerous, and this is about preventing that from happening. Listen, you know, 97 00:07:25.319 --> 00:07:28.000 I'm an army man, but there's an old saying in the Air Force 98 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:30.920 that if you're taking flack, it means you're over the target. Well, 99 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:34.839 the left is losing their ever loving minds about this very common sense change to 100 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:39.800 our constitution. It would put Ohio in line with what most other states have. 101 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.560 The fact that they're losing their minds about this tells us we're probably on 102 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:49.120 target. A couple other issues Frank Leo's Secretary of State well publicized here in 103 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:56.680 newsrooms that even Republican governors opposed this, even Republican attorney general supposed this. 104 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.560 And it's like bubbling up that everybody a republic US and Democrats thinks a bad 105 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:05.680 idea to amend the Constitution at sixty percent. I would add on that two 106 00:08:05.720 --> 00:08:09.160 things rank number one. To amend the US Constitution, it takes two thirds 107 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:13.319 of the House, two thirds of the Senate, and three fourths of the 108 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:18.160 states. In Ohio it takes fifty percent. So it's a very lower standard. 109 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:22.720 And so how do you respond in the argument all these elected Republicans are 110 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:28.399 stepping forward to stand tall for the average slips, to make sure they have 111 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:31.439 a voice in their government, as if you can't vote for people like you. 112 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.559 So respond to the argument, you know, relative to the fact that 113 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:41.240 that somehow that we're taken away the right of the people to control government. 114 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:45.639 First of all, the lefties and the mainstream press are working over time to 115 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:50.000 try to discredit this. There have been all of these hyperbolic editorials, one 116 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:52.159 of them a couple weeks ago said I'm putting a knife to the throat of 117 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:58.720 democracy. Just absolutely insane kind of talk from these lefty editorial boards. But 118 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.320 yeah, so they're going to dig up and senior statesmen, and listen, 119 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:05.440 we value their previous service to our state and we honor them as senior statesmen 120 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:09.639 of our state. But they're wrong. They're just simply wrong on this. 121 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:13.279 And who knows what is influencing them in their retirement years to try to opine 122 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:16.279 about something like this, But they're wrong in Ohio. Ands of this, 123 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:20.159 you're right to mention the difference between the US Constitution of the State Constitution. 124 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:24.960 The US Constitution has been the most durable constitution in human history. It's been 125 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:28.519 amended twenty seven times. It is possible to amend the US Constitution, but 126 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:33.080 the founders were wise to make it difficult. You're right to say seventy five 127 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:37.200 percent of the states have to ratify an amendment to the US Constitution, and 128 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:41.559 as a result, the US Constitution is just about seven thousand words. It 129 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:46.080 fits in your pocket. You can get that US pocket Constitution and stick it 130 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:48.919 in your shirt pocket. The State Constitution, by contrast, not seven thousand 131 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:54.159 words, nearly seventy thousand. It doesn't fit in your pocket unless I'm in 132 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:56.279 my army uniform, got that big pocket on my side. But it doesn't 133 00:09:56.320 --> 00:10:00.080 fit in your pocket. It has been abused by special infers over of the 134 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:01.879 years, and it's time we put put it into that. So the way 135 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:05.960 to get this on the ballot is not having people sitting there on drinking beer, 136 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:11.480 hopefully not bud light at a backyard barbecue with Scott Sloan and his rich 137 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:16.240 friends and Mason saying, you know what, let's let's propose a new law. 138 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:18.720 I'll write it, I'll draft it. Let's go out and get four 139 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:22.399 hundred and eighty five thousand signatures, and we're gonna put that on the ballot. 140 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:26.320 Yeah, we'll get that damn thing passed. And that's not the way 141 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.240 it happens. It happens when special interests pay tens of millions of dollars to 142 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:37.240 paid canvassers with clipboards on college campuses, getting lots of people to say, 143 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:41.480 okay, I think women ought to have healthcare. Well, who wants to 144 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:45.279 vote against women getting healthcare? That sounds like a good idea. And no 145 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.600 one's ferreted out the good, the bad, the indifferent, the exceptions, 146 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:52.240 the exclusions which happens in the constitutional process. Can you smell what I'm cooking? 147 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:58.360 And some of these paid davasters are not even Ohioans. It's it's out 148 00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:01.639 of state folks that have been brought in to stand there and harass people on 149 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:05.440 the sidewalk. Listen. They cost tens of millions of dollars to try to 150 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:07.480 run a campaign like this. It's not something people are cooking up in their 151 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:11.080 backyard with beer or otherwise. It is something that is the result of a 152 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:16.559 special interest group trying to go around our state legislature and amend our constitution. 153 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.960 And the other thing is there's still the ability to do with called an initiated 154 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:24.320 statute. You can work with your fellow citizens to try to put a change 155 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:28.200 to law on the ballot. And the reason why people haven't done that is 156 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:33.320 the same cost involved in running a constitutional amendment campaign is about the same cost 157 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:37.200 to run an initiate a statute. If you want to engage in direct democracy, 158 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:41.039 the way to do that is through initiated statute, not constitutional amendment. 159 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:45.320 And by the way, what's being proposed in the legislature right now would not 160 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:48.600 change that. You would still have a fifty percent plus one vote to do 161 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:54.679 an initiated statute to amend the law, but leave the constitutional life Lastly, 162 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:58.240 we have about a minute remaining. What would you say to well intended but 163 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:05.679 completely misguided citizens like Scott Sloan who wants to rabble rouse and get citizens to 164 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.440 step forward your right to votes being taken away. You have to tell him, 165 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:13.679 first of all, we're a constitutional republic. We're not a democracy or 166 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:18.440 a constitutional republic. But secondly, this is a terrible way to enact law. 167 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:24.279 Please address yourself to the thousands of Ohioans who think the six to present 168 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:28.399 threshold is a bad idea. Oh Willa, you're not going to get me 169 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:30.960 to pick a fight with Sloan on this one, but I'll say he's wrong 170 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:35.120 on this. Direct democracy is not how we govern ourselves. That we have 171 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:41.080 a representative republic. And again, to amend something as foundational as our Constitution 172 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:46.720 should take a supermajority vote. It should take a bipartisan consensus of Republicans and 173 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:48.559 Democrats. That's what it would take to reach sixty percent of a state. 174 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:52.960 You shouldn't be able to do that with a bare majority, because again the 175 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.480 Constitution here, we're talking about something that will be in place for my children 176 00:12:56.519 --> 00:13:00.080 and grandchildren and beyond them, and this is something that should be treated with 177 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:03.840 care, and a simple air majority should not be enough to amend the Constitution. 178 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:09.279 Frank LeRose, thank you very much and thank you for your service in 179 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:11.639 the military on behalf of this great nation. We'll see what happens. It's 180 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:16.039 a good argument to make. But when you have Republican governors like John Kayzick 181 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:22.519 and Bob Taft, you have former Republican Attorney generals like Betty Montgomer's stepping forward 182 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:26.639 to defend the rights of the little guy. Maybe we all want to do 183 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:28.159 that, but there's a way of doing it the right way and array of 184 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:33.039 doing it the wrong way. The way now being proposed as wrong. It 185 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:37.360 should take sixty percent, because the US Constitution is either a sixty six and 186 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:41.679 two thirds or seventy five percent. It must be overwhelming and an a one 187 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:48.840 planned parenthood drafting any statute about women's healthcare that'll be demagogued in November to such 188 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:52.720 an extent we won't recognize the truth. Once again, Frank LeRose, the 189 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:58.200 second cousin of Buddy Leosa three four seven one, Thank you for coming on 190 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:03.480 the Bill Cunning Show. Thank you, Frank Willie, Thank you, God 191 00:14:03.480 --> 00:14:09.120 bless America. Let's continue with more and if a line becomes available five one, 192 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:11.399 three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand or pounds seven hundredth 193 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:16.879 and new at and t and let's face it. On surface, this sounds 194 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:22.000 like a good idea. Citizens getting together concerned about some issue and then writing 195 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.799 a statute on their own legal pad, getting all those half million signatures and 196 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:30.919 then putting it on the ballot for direct democracy. It is a terrible bad 197 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:35.080 idea. It should take at least sixty and Scott Sloan, you've lost your 198 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:41.519 way. Let's continue go Cunningham News Radio, seven hundred w L. I'm 199 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:46.039 doing my best to better myself. That's why I'm taking this learned home dentistry 200 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:50.000 course. My wife's a real sport. Hold on, dear, That's also 201 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:54.879 why I listened to Scott Sloan. He discusses the stuff that affects me and 202 00:14:54.919 --> 00:14:58.320 my wife. I think that right here. Look, I'm about the real 203 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:03.080 stuff, the problems and the issues that actually affect you. But I also 204 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:05.519 make sure we have a little fun along the way. It never hurts to 205 00:15:05.639 --> 00:15:09.279 better yourself, does it, Dear h Check out Sloaney tomorrow morning and night 206 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:15.759 on seven hundred WLW and be sure to Catch his podcast on the iHeartRadio app. 207 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.279 Are you ready to move your career forward?