Think About It with Michael Leppert Michael Leppert

French philosopher and statesman Joseph de Maistre is credited with saying it first: “Every country has the government it deserves.” In America, we more often credit the sentiment to Thomas Jefferson, who specifically said, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”
Ouch. Regardless of the version or the originator, it hurts more than usual on this Primary Election Day in Indiana. It’s designated as a state holiday, for all of the civic reasons that theoretically make sense. This year however, Hoosiers need to celebrate the end of the preseason, the undercard, the opening act that no one wants to watch at the overpriced concert.
Do we really “deserve” this? Sadly, I must concede that we do. As much as I have made fun of the Republican primary campaigns this year being about nothing, there actually is some value hidden in the noise. It’s telling us some hard truths about ourselves.
One truth is that the campaigns I have viewed in central Indiana do not differentiate themselves in any meaningful way on the issue of governing. Writing down that “governing” is an “issue” being inadequately addressed in any campaign for public office is, well, a problem.
Amazingly, the marketplace of ideas, has produced almost no actual ideas. It’s easy to point at campaigns and complain that they aren’t delivering what we, the voters, want. But in markets, supply and demand respond to one another. To summarize, we aren’t demanding enough.
 
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When the news broke last year that heavy metal band, Judas Priest, was coming to town for an April concert I took charge and bought reserved seats up front. When I saw them first in 1984, metal bands didn’t even sell reserved seats, we had to fight for them. That was part of the fun.
I don’t listen to metal much anymore, but I loudly have for the last month in prep for Sunday night’s show. I’ve been head bangin’ in the gym, making other old people nervous, and sporadically yelling out anthems from my youth that just sound wrong coming from the mouth of someone my age.
Last week, the school year ended for me and my students. My classes are a lot of work, so there’s plenty to celebrate when we’re through. But I can feel myself missing them even before they’ve left campus for the summer. I’ll recover when “my” kids come back for the fall, and when Indiana University gives me a hundred more. I know I’ll love the newbies, before we’ve even met.
My favorite high school teacher was Kreg Battles. He taught chemistry, a subject that has occasionally helped me on Jeopardy, and no place else. But I wasn’t really taking chemistry. I was taking Mr. Battles’ class, and he just happened to teach chemistry. He was a metal head, like my crowd was, and that made him one of us.
In 2010, he and I finally got to go to a concert together. That concert? Judas Priest. I asked him that night how he taught that awful subject all those years. Didn’t it get old? He laughed and said, “the students are new every year.”
Now as a new teacher myself, I can attest that the newness is not some little thing. It’s filled with wonder, optimism and excitement. And it’s contagious.
 
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It’s more than math. I have had this conversation many times over the years with a variety of people, and I have been surprised by their surprise almost every time.
Whichever party is drawing the maps of legislative districts, of any kind, they draw them to benefit themselves of course. That part is math, very basic math. In Indiana, Republicans in the Statehouse have drawn the last two maps that determine the House, Senate and Congressional districts. And they have served themselves up a lovely matrix of sweetheart deals.
Last week, James Briggs of the Indianapolis Star wrote a column full of news in it about Senator David Niezgodski, a Democrat from South Bend, who has been accused of sexually harassing a former employee in 2017. The premise in Briggs’ column is that Democrats “maintained a breathtaking lack of curiosity” about the accusations since they first surfaced several years ago. While I primarily agree, I contend the situation is lacking in systemic ways too. 
Personally, I’m not curious about the accusations. I believe them entirely. But what is the remedy? In a word, elections. There hasn’t been a long line of candidates pining for the chance to replace Niezgodski. Or any line at all. In his first reelection run in 2020, he was unopposed. I guess the party could have tried to find another candidate that year, but that’s not as easy as one might think.
Why would any Democrat want his job? Who wants a career of certain defeat on every ideological issue for the entirety of that career? Back to that “conversation” I’ve had so many times.
Gerrymandering in Indiana has created lopsided representation in the Statehouse. We talk about the math all the time, without talking deeply enough about the math’s impact. There are currently 40 Democrat members of the 150 available in the Indiana General Assembly. All of them should be applauded for serving at all.
It takes an unusual amount of patience and tolerance to endure life in what is supposed to be a deliberative body but is now overpopulated with a supermajority made up of unpersuadable people. It also takes an unusual amount of talent to successfully manage through it or overcome it to deliver positive results for one’s constituency. I wrote about two members who have that talent a few weeks ago, Sens. Andrea Hunley and Shelli Yoder. There are others. In the House, Blake Johnson and Carey Hamilton come to mind.
The job, as it currently exists, is profoundly unattractive. What it leads to is a reluctance to run, just like it leads to a reluctance to vote.
 
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On Thursday, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita solicited the public to sue the Indiana Department of Health. I know that sounds odd, and it should sound that way, because it is odd. The IDOH is Rokita’s client.
When an agency is sued, it’s customary for the attorney general to provide legal resources for its defense. Apparently not anymore. Not only should we expect Rokita to refuse to defend the IDOH if it gets sued over its handling of terminated pregnancy reports, but the AG is actively encouraging someone to file the suit. Again, against his own client.
Words can’t describe how unlawyerly that is. It’s a foundational violation of his oath.
He accused the agency and Indiana Public Access Counselor, Luke Britt, of “collusion” for keeping terminated pregnancy reports, or TPRs, from public view. It appears that Rokita has appointed himself the abortion czar of the state and wants to use these medical records in his search for violators of the state’s new ban. This isn’t the reason the data is collected, and the data is viewed by the agency and Britt as medical records protected by the provider-patient relationship.
Ironically, Rokita manipulated the Medical Licensing Board into sanctioning Dr. Caitlin Bernard for allegedly disclosing information about a 10-year-old rape victim who needed an abortion in 2022. He was mad she shared such a vivid example of how bans are bad. Then he worked overtime to find an angle, and importantly, a politically friendly venue, to settle his score with her. His legal claim: Dr. Bernard shared too much information. Now, Rokita wants to share more.
 
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Standing on the 17th tee on Saturday, England’s Lottie Woad was one shot behind American golfer, Bailey Shoemaker in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Shoemaker had finished her bogey-free 66 about an hour earlier and was staying loose on the range in case anyone caught her, and a playoff became necessary.
Woad coolly birdied 17 and 18 for the comeback victory. And when I say cool, I mean it. I found myself standing in front of my TV as she made the winner. The gallery around the final hole was enormous, exploding as the ball fell.
Something is happening in the world of sports. Finally. And thankfully, there is no turning back.
I watched more women’s college basketball than men’s this year. My transition started a few years ago when some high school friends of mine had an all-star daughter commit to play for Teri Moren at IU. She was good. The whole team was good. And the program has grown into something great.
Then came February 22nd of this year. I wanted to see IU play Iowa and Caitlin Clark in Bloomington. The cheapest tickets on the secondary market were going for $125 a piece for an unreserved seat on a Thursday night. Students waited outside for hours to get in, and I just got lucky. A friend got me a seat in the bleachers behind the basket. Watching the beatdown our Hoosiers put on them that night is one of the most memorable sporting events of my life. And I’ve been to a Super Bowl.
 
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In the 1987 film, “Wall Street,” Gordon Gecko famously said, “If you’re not inside, you are outside, okay.” I was impressionable as a young undergraduate when I saw it in the theater that year. Since then, I have firmly believed decisions were only made by the people present in the exclusive room where the next important thing was going to happen.
I still do. Whether the organization is in the world of government or business, entertainment, or athletics, it’s my view that the best leaders are insiders.
So, why do so many political campaigns spend so much energy attempting to create the image that their candidate is an “outsider?” The perceived value of it is a mystery.
First of all, let’s be clear. None of the top candidates for Indiana governor are outsiders. The mere suggestion by any of them is nothing but a ruse. Complicating the weirdness further, being from the outside of government, politics or both, has no value for this specific job, either. 
The Office of the Governor in Indiana is structurally weak. Constitutionally, the simple majority to override a veto has made it such throughout history. In 2024 though, the entrenched super-majorities in the legislature have made it even weaker. Not since Mitch Daniels left office twelve years ago has the office been occupied by the unequivocal leader of the party.
None of those running this year will change that. There is no movement growing behind any of them. One of them will prevail in the primary and appear on the ballot this fall, but whoever is inaugurated in January will still be taking orders from the gerrymandered power base on the third floor of the Statehouse. The lack of any energy behind any big idea practically seals that deal.
There really is only one policy proposal that has risen above the harmonious nothingness of this primary battle, and that is Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch’s pitch to eliminate the state’s income tax. But because the details on how to accomplish it are undeveloped, this innovative idea feels a lot like the campaign promise of a sixth-grade class president candidate promising to end homework. Ironically, this pie-in-the-sky offering comes from the candidate least likely to be called an outsider. Go figure.
 
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