MAGA is a Big Tent Party: Understanding Republican Party Politics in Butler County, Ohio

There seems to be a lot of confusion from liberals who thought they understood the political landscape and who have learned recently they didn’t understand anything about it, especially regarding the Republican Party of Butler County, Ohio, where the Lakota drama unfolded during the presidency of Joe Biden. After all, they see pictures of politicians they know, watch their behavior, and think they understand politics. But their assessments have been all wrong. For instance, they think Darbi Boddy, the first-year school board member at Lakota schools, represents the fringe extreme right-wing politics that is so scary to the purple-haired people eaters of the communist LEA labor union. When, in fact, all those sympathetic to the labor movement from the police unions, the teacher unions, the electrical union down the road, all the moderates, the RINOs, and the many, many Democrats who run for office in our very conservative county who put an R next to their name because a D would get them thrown out of their local Target while buying socks if people knew. The political landscape can be pretty confusing to the latte-sipping prostitutes I’m always talking about who are out there trying to save one child at a time with screams for more safety, vaccination status, and bicycle helmets worn to get the mail out of the mailbox. The confusion comes from the scope of the political movement, not its limits, and that is where all the mistakes are made, which for Democrats is catastrophic.

When we were vetting candidates for the Lakota school board, I knew that Isaac Adi had some liberal sentiments. We had a campaign event at Jags Steakhouse, where it came out several times while he sat beside me. But I thought Isaac would be great on the Lakota school board anyway. He was softer-shelled than I am, but I thought it would be much better than the liberals we had been dealing with at that point. So I put my differences aside and got behind him anyway. For me, it was about presidential politics instead of the local disputes that I was after. MAGA is a big tent party, much bigger than traditional Republicans, who were thought of as rich white guys represented in the past. MAGA is all about women, diversity, immigration, and people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs. At that time, Isaac would say to me that he was “MAGA,” and I was okay with that. I still am, even though the confusion is apparent, such as at the Republican Christmas Party, where Isaac took a picture with the black-hatted villain himself, Sheriff Jones, who was at the center of the Matt Miller controversy. Jones who has been a big supporter of President Trump especially over immigration issues played his part in assisting bad behavior at Lakota schools while trying to destroy members of the Republican Party for personal reasons.  We call people like Sheriff Jones people playing Battleship with political rivals rather than chess, and it sends the wrong message to actual political enemies, that is very confusing for them.  Those labor union brothers stick together, even when they do the wrong things. But Isaac is honest and believes what people say to him because he isn’t a person to mislead himself. I look at the picture of those two guys and see voters and supporters for President Trump. But I also see a Democrat and a person thinking about being a Republican. They are about as conservative as Joe Manchin from West Virginia. Relative to the rest of the Democrat Party, they look conservative. But compared to the Tea Party types who are really behind Republican Party politics at the grassroots level, the politics aren’t even close to being consensual.    Now liberals trying to figure out who are Republicans and Democrats in the county would look at that picture and think they have the Republican Party all figured out, and those two are what they are dealing with. So, of course, their lives will be shattered when they find out that just referencing them as MAGA Republicans isn’t the same as legislating as a conservative.

Another good example was a recent photo of West Chester Township Trustee Lee Wong at a Chinese New Year type of event getting a selfie of himself with Joe Biden, giddy as a schoolgirl. Lately, because the political sentiment has demanded it, Lee has voted more conservatively, more along the lines of my friend Mark Welch than toward the liberal leanings of the past. I would not call Lee a Republican, ever. But he has voted more conservatively than another friend of mine who is another fellow trustee, Ann Becker. I’ve known Ann for a long time as she was president of the Cincinnati Tea Party and openly campaigned against John Boehner for being too much of a RINO while he was the third most powerful person in the country as Speaker of the House. These days, however, next to Lee Wong, Ann looks like the liberal. So that gives a little perspective to how things can change over time as the political tides roll in and out. But then you learn what a person is really about when they get a chance to meet President Biden. I wouldn’t be caught under any circumstances shaking his hand under any condition. Biden represents the worst in politics. But you can see from the picture that Lee was enchanted to have a picture with Biden, which says everything about his political motivations. 

People only casually concerned with politics to preserve their wild sex lives and extracurricular social nonsense wanted to think that Lee Wong, Isaac Adi, Sheriff Jones, and others represented the Republican Party because they see them at the same kind of events, so they misplaced their strategies. Many real conservatives in Butler County never go to social events because the people are too liberal for them. If they get a candidate to vote for like Darbi Boddy, they will show up on election day, the same as they will for Trump. But if they get just another RINO, they will probably not vote. And when it came time for the rubber to hit the road with the Matt Miller drama at Lakota, there was a surprising level of support for Darbi, who is considered a radical right-winged Republican as opposed to the much more moderate Isaac Adi. Liberals looked at the situation and thought they could work with Isaac. But not Darbi, so they endeavored to get rid of her and made quite a show of it. But they didn’t understand that much of what they thought was the Republican Party was an illusion. They were looking at the big tent MAGA party with all kinds of people coming to it because MAGA means wins. Being associated with President Trump means winning in politics. Obviously, people thinking of running want to be associated with MAGA politics, despite what the liberal news media wants to believe. But when it comes down to personal beliefs, people are generally conservative; they lean much more toward Darbi Boddy than toward Isaac Adi. And Democrats, to them, is a very dirty word. So is working with them. While the moderates, the RINOs, and the communist union supporters all talk about working together, what the voting public wants is a fight. They want fighters who will sort out all the nonsense and represent them in government. Darbi Boddy certainly does that, and so does President Trump on a national level. But the mushy middle is what gives politics a bad name because politicians who claim to be more conservative than they really are just to get elected end up disappointing everyone. And in a world of lies and misleading action, those are unforgivable sentiments. It might win a vote under the big tent of MAGA. But it certainly doesn’t win the hearts of the public. 

Rich Hoffman