Kasich: Too Much Feeling, Not Enough Head or Heart

Governor John Kasich (R-OH) on Fox News Sunday (YouTube)

In his latest turn on Fox News Sunday, Ohio Governor John Kasich spent a lot of time talking about  helping humanity and God:

You cannot build the  little guy up by tearing the big guy down.

and then:

The idea that raising capital gains taxes is going to help grow your economy is just not going to work.

Also:

Economic growth is not an end unto itself. Economic growth provides the means whereby we can reach out and help those  who  live in the shadows.

Chris Wallace reminded viewers that Kasich had accepted the Medicaid expansion from Obamacare. Then there are the vice taxes, also gaining slight momentum in fiscally austere Kansas, as well as taxing natural gas drilling. The latest governor to propose taxes on energy exploration, Tom Corbett, was the only Republican forced out of office in the 2014 landslide Republican year.

Taxing production and bad personal habits are not hallmarks of conservatism, which the current slate of Republican governors (and potential presidential contenders) should be promoting.

Listen, Chris, we are running a billion and a half surplus in the state .We are structurally balanced, when twenty other states are not able to do that. We are up almost three hundred thousand jobs. We are structurally balanced. We've always been fiscally responsible, but let me speak to that issue of helping other people, and how economic growth provides you an opportunity. I will not turn my back on the mentally ill, who live under bridges too often of the time in this country. I will not turn my back on the drug addicted, and I want turn my back on the working poor.

Now deceased National Review editor William F. Buckley would indict Kasich as a pyromaniac let loose in a field of strawmen. No one was contending that Kasich lacked compassion for the downtrodden.

The true point of contention is Kasich's good will with other people's money.

I'm a believer, as a conservative, that everybody has a God-given purpose.

Welcome words in a very secular period in this country's history, a gracious remark, yet pronounced in a forced fashion:

It is our job on a temporary basis to try to give them a chance to fulfill their God-given purpose by helping them. Now, it can't be a way of life. It can only be a situation where you can help them for a short period of time.

That ubiquitous word "we" justifies big government programs to Governor Kasich. Who is "we", and are they choosing to use their time, money, and resources to help others?

And we are demanding, we are doing to demand personal responsibility.

Later in the interview, after Kasich defended Common Core education standards and shamed its critics as giving into "hysteria", he returned to his drive as a leader in "the microcosm of America":

If you listen to the rhetoric of some of the people now who are running for President, it's interesting how many of them are using these comments. Do you know how many Republican governors are trying to expand Medicaid?

Actually, not as many as Kasich believes.

I just want to be a good leader. I just want people to feel like they've got a chance, no matter who they are. And I'll tell you one interesting thing, Chris. I was in Utah, Chris, and I was walking through the capital, and I saw a bunch of inmates. I don't know what they were doing there, maybe cleaning things up. I shook every one of their hands, and you know what I told them? "God has a purpose for you. You're in a tough spot right now, you may be in a tough spot later, , but remember that the Lord has a purpose for you. Be hopeful.

What was going on with all the God talk? Is Kasich seeking the Congressional chaplaincy? Or is playing the religious card to win over Iowa voters? His frequent referrals to the deity seemed forced, not faithful, or even heartfelt. Kasich is too much into feeling, and not enough head or heart.