You know, I don't understand how last week's ballot initiative made tactical sense. Republican Party leaders in Ohio know that rank and file Ohio Republicans tend to support at least some abortion rights. Sure, there's a hard-core anti-abortion rump among the base, but abortion restrictions are clearly a losing electoral issue, not just statewide but party wide.

(Hell, my very Catholic, Republican family In west central Ohio mostly oppose legislating extreme abortion restrictions. If anything would get the women in my conservative family to cross party lines in a general election, this would.)

So it's at least passing strange to me that the party is fighting so hard on what is evidently a losing issue.

That feels like irrational, self-destructive behavior. I suppose that this could be late at the feet of anti-democratic forces within the Republican Party itself. I don't know, but something has to explain it.