Tim Ryan Says Americans Need To Give Up Gas Cars as He Drives Around Ohio in Gas Guzzlers
Washington Free BeaconNov 18, 2022
US Midterms: J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan Clash in Ohio Senate Debate
Image copyright: Getty Images [via The New York Times]
The Facts
J.D. Vance, a Republican competing for a spot in the Ohio Senate in the upcoming midterm elections, traded blows with his Democratic rival Tim Ryan in a controversial hour-long debate on Monday.
The pair argued over Ryan's portrayal of Vance as a "MAGA extremist," issues around foreign policy, and Vance's accusation that Ryan was a "career politician." However, they reached a consensus in agreeing that local police departments need to employ more officers.
The Spin
Republican narrative
Ryan is blatantly misrepresenting himself and his politics. Despite a constructed and rhetorical effort to appeal to the Trump voters and supporters of the Ohio electorate, he has contradicted himself by saying he wants to "kill and confront" the MAGA movement. He isn't a bipartisan unifier but a career politician peddling a false narrative about the "extremism" of policies that are largely supported in the area he seeks to represent.
Democratic narrative
Monday's debate saw Vance fail to take accountability for the consequences of his own political agenda and fuel division by vilifying moderate Democratic policy. Rather than recognize that the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade — one of the largest governmental overreaches in living memory — has resulted in a widespread loss of bodily autonomy and increased risk for women, he blamed immigration. Ryan is right: Ohioans are tired of this empty rhetoric and want to return to a more moderate policy.
Cynical narrative
Both Democrats and Republicans are playing politics in an attempt to secure reelection. A reductive and oversimplified "us vs. them" mentality has come to dominate how Americans view themselves and each other. This is an unsustainable state of affairs that can only undermine democracy and, eventually, result in a social breakdown. The US must work to look beyond the short-termism incentivized by western democratic models to find common superordinate goals to depolarize politics.