Ohio’s leaders must prepare for the future, rather than gaze into the rear-view mirror, if they want to ensure the state’s workers aren’t left behind in a quickly changing world, Gov. John Kasich said Tuesday night during his seventh State of the State address.
During a 70-minute speech, Kasich said soon-to-come technological innovations like self-driving cars and flying food-delivery drones will disrupt the state’s economy. But they also can pose an opportunity for the state, as long as the right efforts are made to support and coordinate Ohio’s research and education institutions, he said.
“Folks, this is coming. Make no mistake, this change will affect not only blue-collar jobs, but insurance adjusters, stockbrokers and others may be impacted by artificial intelligence,” Kasich said. “Who knows, maybe the General Assembly will be replaced by robots….But the bottom line is for almost every profession… if we aren’t prepared for change, people are going to find themselves out of work.”
In that way and others, Kasich’s message was a subtle repudiation of the politics of President Donald Trump, who won Ohio and the White House last year while promising to restore the nation’s past as a center of heavy manufacturing and industry.
But one of Kasich’s own looks to the past — a brief campaign trail anecdote he shared from his failed bid for president last year — was a reminder that his efforts to have his voice heard within the Republican Party seem increasingly drowned out in the era of Trump.
Click here to read some other takeaways from Kasich’s Tuesday night speech, delivered at the historic Sandusky State Theater.
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