Lynn Schmidt: One governor's responsible leadership rebukes today's poisonous partisanship

Bad actors, both foreign and domestic, continue to try to weaken America by stoking the flames of division and the embers of fear of one another.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is leading by example by trying to put out the polarization fire with responsible governance.

Ohio's chief executive, a Republican, has been adroitly handling the crisis in the city of his birth with the interests of all Buckeyes at hand, all while doing so in a cross-partisan manner.

The small Ohio city of Springfield has struggled to adjust to the 15,000 legal Haitian immigrants who settled there to find work. After the Sept. 10 presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump falsely accused members of Springfield's Haitian community of abducting and eating cats and dogs, the community has been inundated with bomb threats and other disturbances.

Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has made matters worse for the state he serves by continuing to amplify the debunked rumors of immigrants eating pets.

Trump and Vance are doing this to criticize the immigration policies of President Joe Biden and Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

As of Sept. 17, Springfield had received 33 bomb threats made against schools, government buildings, and city officials' homes. The bomb threats forced evacuations and closures as well as the cancellation of Springfield's CultureFest.

"Thirty-three threats; Thirty-three hoaxes," DeWine announced during a press conference. "I want to make that very, very clear. None of these had any validity at all." He went on to say: "We have people unfortunately overseas who are taking these actions. Some of them are coming from one particular country."

The governor's office said that a criminal investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies determined the "vast majority" of the threats were international in origin. Those officials did not provide information on how investigators determined they came from a foreign country or the name of the country.

DeWine quickly dispatched Ohio Highway Patrol troopers in each school building in Springfield "so the schools can remain open, teachers and children can feel safe and students can continue to learn."

He and his wife Fran have not shied away from going to Springfield during this current situation and have been on the ground in visiting schools, businesses, and churches.

DeWine has also been communicating effectively with residents of Ohio by sitting down for countless local and national interviews and holding press conferences. Last week, he also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times that read like a compassionate conservative guidebook, which personally made my heart swell.

He shared how he and Fran have traveled to Haiti over 20 times and have supported a Catholic priest who runs a tuition-free school in a slum in Port-au-Prince. He conveyed that the Haitian people "want the same things we all want — a good job, the chance to get a quality education and the ability to raise a family in a safe and secure environment."

DeWine wrote: "As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there."

He went on to condemn the Biden administration's failure to control the southern border and to say that Trump and Vance were right to highlight the issue that is concerning to most Americans — but that their verbal attacks "dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border."

There were nearly 2,000 comments on the Times' website regarding DeWines' opinion piece. The majority were made by Democratic partisans who are angry that DeWine continues to support the head of his party and his own senator. Many unrealistically cried out for DeWine to dump Trump and endorse Harris.

Instead of chiding DeWine for being a partisan Republican, we should instead focus on what matters and reward him for his leadership. He has demonstrated concern for all Ohioans, as well as a willingness to call out either party when they are doing things that harm his residents.

Unfortunately, negative partisanship prevents too many Americans from doing this.

DeWine shows all of us what real guardianship and governing looks like as well as being an example of a depolarizer. He called out Trump and Vance for their inflammatory rhetoric. He denounced Biden and Harris for their weak border policies. He is working to ensure all residents of Springfield are safe. And he placed the blame for the bomb threats where it belongs; on foreign actors who wish us harm.

We should all be so lucky to have a calming, competent, and caring executive and should judge DeWine by his performance as governor and not for whom he may or may not vote for in November.

Schmidt is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member. . On X: Catch the latest in Opinion