Ohio Issue 2

From the LA Times (h/t nc links):

Kasich, the focus of both sides in the referendum fight, touts his blue-collar roots as the son of a postman. But he warns that a victory by organized labor would undercut his efforts to hold the line on government spending and rebuild the state's economy.
"Look, I understand that people are nervous about this in the public sector," he told a northeastern Ohio rally in support of the anti-union law he signed in March. But, he added, "if we want to continue on this path of pulling Ohio out of this ditch, the state of Ohio has to be responsible."
The arguments by Kasich, whose popularity has fallen sharply since his election a year ago, appear to have swayed few voters. Public and private polling indicates that Ohioans, by a substantial margin, want to overturn the new law.
Strategists on both sides say conservative legislators and the new governor, emboldened by a Republican election sweep, overreached when they added curbs on collective bargaining to a measure requiring government workers to pay a larger share of their pension and healthcare costs.

Obviously, Kasich overreached.  He barely won the election, and with normal turnout in Democratic districts, he wouldn't have won election.  Yet, he shoved through a huge grabbag of Republican wet dreams without any participation from the people affected.  Meanwhile, he pushed through another income tax cut.  The Republicans demonized public workers, when they should have been working to compromise.  The public workers knew the Ohio budget was a mess.  They were willing to make sacrifices.  But the Republicans threw away the opportunity by trying to bust the unions. 

I voted no on Issue 2, along with voting no on Issues 1 and 3.  I agree with the Republicans that changes have to be made in public sector employment, but I disagree that taxes must always go down or that workers can only collectively-bargain on wages.  I think any rational political party would have approached the state budget as a give-and-take opportunity for negotiating positive change.  Unfortunately, the Republicans aren't rational.  Republicans win gracelessly, and they lose even more gracelessly.  I don't know whether they will actually lose on Issue 2, but if they have learned any lessons, they should handle victory or defeat with a little grace, for a change.  I doubt that they will, though.