Ohio Gov. John Kasich has flown under the radar this election season. In a primary dominated by Donald Trump and his antics, the thoughtful and reserved Kasich doesn’t make for flashy media headlines and controversial statements. His Twitter feed isn’t full of vicious attacks on candidates, their wives or journalists. He doesn’t grandstand or make sweeping promises he can’t keep.
Instead he carries his distinct conservative message to small town halls around the country. It’s less rooted in ideology than in a belief in the American individual. This belief in individual responsibility is unique in this campaign. It’s an idea that individuals not only drive economic growth and political leadership, but that they have to be more engaged with their communities and with each other.
Whether it’s consoling those who have lost loved ones or empathizing with people struggling to find work, Kasich’s (nonreligious) political spirituality is a shining light in what has been so wrong with this presidential primary. Every candidate has taken so many negative stances toward everyone and everything. Kasich, for the most part, has kept things positive. He acknowledges serious and fundamental problems and isn’t shy about addressing them. But he believes in you and me. He wants to make it easier for us to succeed in our endeavors, yet also expects us to be there for one another. His genuine empathy is strikingly rare in a political campaign.
Presidents need to do a lot more than just empathize with the people they lead. But Kasich doesn’t just have empathy and belief in Americans; he also has the leadership experience, political ideology and open-mindedness to be a great president.
He served in the House of Representatives for 18 years, including six years as the chairman of the all-important Budget Committee and Armed Services Committee. For the past six years, he has been the governor of Ohio. Ohio, a state that voted for President Obama twice, re-elected Kasich by a 64 to 33 percent margin in 2014.
Titles are nice, but results actually matter. Kasich was an unrelenting fiscal watchdog while in the House, working with both parties to eliminate wasteful spending even in the Defense Department. He worked with Ralph Nader in an attempt to reduce tax loopholes in the increasingly complex tax code. Kasich even proposed an alternative, market-based health care reform bill during the Clinton health care debates in the early 1990s. His extensive foreign policy experience — and current policy prescriptions — have made him a favorite of hundreds of policy experts.
Kasich wrote key welfare reform and budget bills that were signed into law in the 1990s. Most famously, he helped author the first balanced budget — the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 — in nearly three decades. As governor, he has overseen the creation of more than 400,000 jobs as well as balanced budgets and turned significant debts into massive state surpluses. He has worked to expand access to health care for low-income Ohioans as well as institute significant criminal-justice reforms. Kasich strongly believes in a limited federal government, preferring that state governments and the people take charge of solving problems locally.
His acknowledgement of human-caused climate change, political acceptance of same-sex marriage and expansion of Medicaid as governor of Ohio make for a dangerous combination in a Republican primary, but demonstrate his open-mindedness. Kasich has altered his beliefs on immigration, still believing in a strong border and visa program, but also adopting a humane, realistic approach toward deportation and the legalization of current illegal immigrants. He’s been unafraid to veto bills passed by a Republican legislature or join a coalition of Democrats to solve pressing problems.
Kasich’s ideology is what we need. He wants to put power in the hands of the people and solve most problems locally, where people closest to the problem can provide the most effective solutions to address specific needs. For national economic growth, Kasich’s record speaks for itself, and his solutions empower individuals and small businesses to generate lasting growth. He has a budget plan to address the still-massive structural budget deficit and tackle the $19 trillion debt. These are just two of the problems he proposes to address in an effort to empower the American individual.
In short, Kasich is a leader who strives to solve problems. He might not match up perfectly with your ideology — he doesn’t always align with mine — but he wants to solve problems together, and he does it with a high standard of integrity. He’s not perfect, but who is? With Washington gridlock, we need someone who is unafraid to get things done. Kasich has the right experience and beliefs to not only create pro-growth and limited-government policies, but also to actually accomplish them. John Kasich is the president we need if we truly want to solve the serious problems facing our nation.
Matt Dragonette, opinion editor, is a senior accounting and government and politics major. He can be reached at mdragonettedbk@gmail.com.
