Sick Leaves Leaves Sick Ohio

The labor-union-sponsored organization that sought to make paid sick leave mandatory for employees in Ohio has asked that its initiative be removed from the November ballot.

Their public reason is that "a shrill and vitriolic ballot campaign marred by misinformation and disinformation would be impossible to avoid," per a union officer widely quoted on the subject. We appreciate the fact that this spokesperson did not specify that the shrillness and vitriol would emanate from backers of the measure, not opponents, who have patently obvious economic reasoning on their side.

Faux-populist politicians like Senator Sherrod Brown (motto: "suits custom rumpled daily") are pledging to their labor union overlords to pass federal legislation on the subject and claim to have the support of Barack Obama (motto: "giveaways for everyone, costs for no one"). Their slick reasoning goes thus: if Ohio alone mandates paid sick leave, then Ohio will lose jobs to other states; but if the entire United States mandates paid sick leave, jobs will surely not go to Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, China, Laos, or Ghana, since President Obama will ruthlessly punish those who "export" American jobs.

Right. Was it Thomas Friedman who said, "The world is flat, but you can build a wall around America and keep all the good stuff inside"?*

Again, we believe that we are watching the implosion of the Democratic Party, much like the implosion of the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The internal contradictions of the party's discredited ideology, so frustrating to those of us who'd like a political debate that is informed and honest, are on display more often than the industrious blogging classes can chronicle. Continuing to pretend that more mandates, stricter regulations and higher taxes are the keys to productivity and prosperity, the Dems are squandering the electoral advantage they seized with moderate and conservative Congressional candidates in 2006.

And Ohio's Democrats are just about the worst of the bunch. So far, the so-called "moderate" Ted Strickland has equivocated on the removal of frat-boy attorney general Mark Dann, given the state's compulsive gamblers a steadier fix with Keno games, and now first supported and then unsupported mandatory sick leave for every employee of every company with more than 25 employees, all while doing nothing to stem the exodus of jobs for which he so richly blamed his predecessors.

Meanwhile, in Washington, wrinkly Sherrod Brown is hoarsely communicating with the shade of George Meany as he plans to have Leon Trotsky's picture put on the $10 bill. Or so we expect to learn sometime next week.

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*Attention leftists: don't bother calling us a hypocrite for making fun of a metaphorical wall around the United States because conservatives want to build a literal wall around it, since this conservative has no interest in building walls at borders, as you'd know if you read this blog as often as you should. Attention rightists: don't get us started again on immigration, or you'll betray the inconsistency of your own adherence to free markets, equal opportunity, the virtue of work and the importance of family, as you'd know if you read this blog as often as you should.