Republican Family Values

It is primary time in Warren County and that means it might as well be November. I believe that Warren County has more registered Republicans per capita than any county in the United States. Democrats have about as much chance of being elected as someone with the last name Huckabee. The primary races basically decide who gets elected in November. Democrats sometimes send a "lamb to the slaughter", but many offices go unchallenged in the general election.

I am a registered Republican only because I am too busy to go to the board of elections and switch to independent. Republican rule has ruined my beloved State of Ohio. Ten years ago, I was screaming to everyone who would listen that Bob Taft would be the worst governor we could possibly elect. One of my father's friends is a big wig in the Ohio Republican Party and was behind Taft ten years ago. Every time I see him, I remind him what the Good Ole Boy network did for our state.

As a registered Republican, I get literature from everyone running in the primary. Because I have a history of voting in primaries, I get more than most Republicans. This year, we get to elect a new State Representative. I had narrowed my choice to two candidates and decided to dig a little deeper to finalize my choice. What I found shocked me!

Based on campaign literature, I had selected a young guy named John Rabenold for my top two. This morning, I learned that this guy has been an executive, spokesman, and lobbyist for Check-N-Go Corporation for the past several years. This is one of these payday loan outfits that prey on the poor, the elderly, the military, and college students. They try to get their "customers" in a cycle of past due payments and outrageous interest rates that can be described as nothing more than legal slavery. This is how the guy affords a $600,000 home in Indian Hill, Cincinnati's priciest neighborhood.

Every day, the Dave Ramsey show has someone who is enslaved to a predatory lender like this. They lend money to desperate people knowing full well the borrower has no possible way of paying it back on time. Then they charge interest rates and fees that quickly escalate beyond the original amount borrowed. Since they helped the Republican Congress rewrite the bankruptcy law, the borrower is stuck in a vicious cycle and cannot break free. Many times, family members bail out the borrower and the lender makes out like a bandit. But even if the person defaults on the loan, they have usually paid enough fees and interest that there is still a tidy profit for the predatory lender. This used to be called loan sharking and was illegal. But now, organized crime has been run out of this business because it has been made legal.

Nearly every military base in the country has several payday loan places in the strip mall nearest the front gate. Military leaders have pleaded with Congress to stop them from loaning money to our armed forces and their spouses. Many have become so far in debt that they have lost their security clearances required for sensitive military work. Many have lost out on promotions due to their indebtedness.

This kind of Republican makes me want to vomit. John Rabenold can take his "family values" and stuff them up his ass. I fear the general craziness that goes with Democratic control of the Federal government. But the idiot Republicans have swung the pendulum so far that I am beginning to believe a correction is in order.

Mr. Rabenold's campaign literature talks about family values. But people like this have NO VALUES.