Less division and fear, more reason to trust              

We expect that some of you share our concerns about the harm resulting when an increasing number of politicians serve their own ambitions by lying — especially when they lie to elevate fear, anger, and divisiveness. We hope that you will join us in prioritizing these concerns when you vote.

One of us is a Republican and the other a Democrat. We have both held public office at the state level — one in the legislative branch, the other in the executive branch. That does not mean we’re right, but it does mean that we are not naïve about politics or speaking solely to serve one political party when we say this: It is not business as usual for leaders to make up stuff to serve their own interests, to scare us or to stir up hate. This has gotten worse.

For this reason, when we vote, we will prioritize turning politics toward a more honest and a less dark and divisive direction.

First, we are going to vote for Ohio Issue 1, which will place a panel of citizens, rather than politicians, in charge of drawing the voting districts for state legislators and US representatives. Ohio tried a system in which politicians were tasked with setting aside their own interests to follow a set of legal standards. Seven times in the last few years the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the elected officials violated the law in drawing districts. Issue 1 would place people in charge of redistricting who are not in or running for office and who are in equal parts Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

Second, we will prioritize character over our policy or party interests when we vote for candidates. While candidates’ policy positions matter a lot to us, we have heard enough unmet “what I will do on day one” promises to be skeptical about the weight we should give policy promises. More important, we abhor the thought of becoming a nation of haters. We do not want people to give up basic rights because someone conjures up a story to make them feel that life as they know it is about to end. We want leaders who have earned our trust. Unlikely as it seems from our backgrounds, we find that we are going to vote this fall for some of the same candidates and issues.

We Ohioans remain a can-do people who wish each other well. We are not prisoners of politicians’ decisions to discard truth and sow panic and polarization. We can vote for systems and leaders to further, not undercut, these central aspirations for the state and nation.

Rocky Saxbe served in the U.S. Marines during the Vietnam War, as an Ohio Representative for four terms, as the Republican nominee for Ohio Attorney General, and Partner-in-Charge of the Columbus office of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.  Nancy H. Rogers served as Ohio Attorney General and Dean of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.  Both are now retired.

Read the original piece here.