Wanna Bet?

I arrived home this evening to find the Franklin County Democratic Party sample ballot waiting for me. Imagine my dismay when I found that the Democratic Party is urging me to vote yes on Issue 3! For those outside of Ohio, Issue 3 is a proposed constitutional amendment to build casinos in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo. I can barely even begin to describe in this space what's wrong with this picture. First of all, a constitutional amendment? Really? We need to have it encoded in the very fabric of our state government that there should be 4 casinos in Ohio? How is this possibly a good idea? Next, the way that this has been promoted just rubs me the wrong way. The overall message is, "everyone else is doing it, so why don't we?" I'm pretty sure my parents taught me that's no argument for doing something. As the tired old response goes, "if everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you too?" But what makes it even worse in this co...