‘Moderate’ John Kasich Is Actually Terrifying

John Kasich is such an appealing guy, isn’t he? He went to a same-sex wedding once. He thinks Donald Trump’s plan to deputize the violent thugs at his rallies so they can kick out all the brown people is pretty unreasonable. His folksy Midwestern-dad charm gives Democrats fits of terror when we imagine facing him in the general election.

He’s the anti-Trump and the anti-Ted Cruz, neither a demonstrably racist egomaniac nor a pinched and sleazy blowhard.

Add that all together, and it spells M-O-D-E-R-A-T-E.

Kasich was always supposed to be the moderate in the race, which is why he wasn’t given much of a chance of surviving until Iowa, let alone this late in the game. But on Tuesday, he won his home state, winner-take-all Ohio, throwing a genuine wrench into Trump’s march toward the nomination.

He has as much a shot at that nomination as Cruz does. Both are going to need a brokered convention to win, and Cruz’s habit of alienating literally every human being he comes in contact with might put his chances at risk. Why shouldn’t the convention turn to Kasich, who will come in with the third-most delegates and the best shot at beating Hillary Clinton in the fall?

After all, he’ll tempt plenty of independents who distrust her. And the Bernie Sanders supporters who will hold their nose to vote for Clinton to avoid a Donald Trump-led apocalypse might not be as motivated when the aw-shucks governor of Ohio is her opponent. A Wall Street Democrat versus a moderate Republican? Why bother? (Nader voters from 2000 will be familiar with this sentiment, as well as the feeling of being proven terribly wrong over the next eight years.)

Despite his carefully cultivated appearance, and despite comparisons to the moron and the goblin left standing next to him, John Kasich is no moderate. A cursory look at his record proves the opposite: On the issues that matter, Kasich is a deep-red conservative who would do everything in his power to move America in an uglier, more regressive direction.

Let’s look at just one issue: the right of women in Ohio to get an abortion when they need one. As governor, Kasich has done everything in his power to put roadblock after roadblock in their way.

Kasich has worked with the legislature to jam some of the nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion policies into the state’s budget (a neat trick that makes them easier to pass).

In 2013, the budget defunded Planned Parenthood, eliminating $1.4 million in federal funds that went toward a wide variety of health care services — and not a penny toward abortion, since federal dollars can’t pay for abortion anyway.