That uneasy, off-balance feeling you've been experiencing isn't your imagination. It's the sensation shared by all Ohioans as our ship of state lists to starboard.

Ohio has moved increasingly to the right over the last 20 years as rapacious Republicans gerrymandered ever larger percentages of seats at the Statehouse and in the U.S. Congress. The GOP currently holds 65% of Ohio House seats, 76% of Ohio Senate seats, and 75% of Ohio's congressional seats. They average only 54% of the statewide vote.

This undeserved, unhealthy imbalance of power led to the passage of extreme legislation disfavored by a majority of Ohioans and opposed by professionals in the field. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes abortion bans such as Ohio's law deeming them unscientific and a danger to women's health. The Fraternal Order of Police strongly opposed permitless carry legislation as a threat to both police and public safety. Both laws passed anyway on a largely party-line vote.

More:From pancaking and Coingate to ECOT and House Bill 6: 50 years of Ohio public corruption cases

Unfettered power also induces a sense of entitlement and invites corruption. Two recent Republican Ohio speakers of the House resigned or were expelled after FBI investigations of corruption and the House Bill 6 bribery case is touted as the "largest public corruption scandal in Ohio history."

Perhaps the most audacious and consequential Republican flex was their performance on the oxymoronic "bipartisan" Ohio Redistricting Commission (ORC). With the help of pricey North Carolina gerrymandering pros from Nelson Mullins Riley, & Scarborough, Republican members trampled the Ohio Constitution, scoffed at the Ohio Supreme Court and forced unconstitutional maps and two expensive primaries on their fellow citizens. This thuggery sets up the GOP to likely retain their comfortable status quo.

And with only a few bad breaks, things could get remarkably worse. If the U.S. Supreme Court decides in favor of "independent state legislature theory" in the Moore v. Turner case, then the Ohio Supreme Court will have no oversight on future redistricting decisions, leaving the Ohio Redistricting Commission to gerrymander without reproach.

The far reach of legislative supermajorities

Or consider the scenario Thomas Suddes described in his Oct. 2 column ("Are the days when the governor was the big dog in Ohio over?"): if Republicans hold their grip on the Ohio Senate and pick up just two more seats in the Ohio House, they will have supermajorities that permit them to inoculate a bill against a ballot referendum by declaring it to be an emergency measure regarding the peace, health or safety of the public. Do you think the folks that voted seven times for unconstitutional maps would think twice about construing abortion or even gun legislation as an emergency measure? Kiss your ballot initiatives goodbye.

Even without Suddes' dystopian option, there is ample opportunity in the ballot initiative process to delay and derail a referendum. Ask the good people of Michigan about their experience in getting an abortion referendum on the ballot. The Michigan Supreme Court had to intervene to allow the measure after legal challenges relating to spacing and formatting trivialities of the text were mounted. Would a Republican- dominated Ohio Supreme Court do likewise?

Ohioans who value democracy must vote for change

This is dangerous. If Ohio's ship of state is to be set right, if Ohio legislation and Ohio's representation is to fairly represent the voice of a mixed electorate, then November's election requires a coalition of democracy lovers to vote for change. It's going to require a shift to the left to counterbalance the starboard tilt that is threatening to sink the ship. The solution entails fixing our own ship first and getting our own affairs in order before tackling the larger issue of U.S. congressional representation. The latter depends on the former.

More:In Ohio's redistricting battle, Gov. Mike DeWine said he'd take the lead. But did he?

It starts with change at the top. The triumvirate of Mike DeWine, Frank LaRose, and Keith Faber enabled the Ohio Redistricting Commission gerrymander by voting not once, not twice, but seven times for unconstitutional maps. Although Matt Huffman, the architect of the dirty deed, will be back because his term does not expire until 2024 and his seat is safely gerrymandered, statewide officeholders enjoy no such privilege. If you can't get rid of the thug, at least get rid of the three cowards that enabled him.

Secondly, it requires impartial jurists on the Ohio Supreme Court. Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, who is age limited, must be replaced with a similarly fair-minded individual. Justice Sharon Kennedy is not that person. Her over-the-top partisanship was on full display when she described the then ongoing redistricting commission struggle as "the fight of our life." Colleague Pat DeWine is similarly compromised, according to ethics experts who question his failure to recuse himself from redistricting cases when his father, the governor, was on the commission. Individuals who cannot render justice blindly do not belong on the Supreme Court.

Lastly, it requires holding Republicans to only the roughly 54% of seats that they safely gerrymandered. The 10 competitive Ohio Senate seats and the 26 competitive Ohio House seats must go in the Democratic column.

The November election will decide if the Ohio ship of state resembles Ohio or Texas. If Ohioans do not vote more Democrats into office and onto the Supreme Court, if the independents and the fair-minded Republicans and the nostalgic Rip Van Winkle muscle memory voters do not help repudiate Republican overreach, then they cannot claim to be victims when extreme legislation continues and when the Ohio Supreme Court fails to provide a meaningful curb on the lawless inclinations of elected officials. They will be accomplices.

Jacqueline Myers Roth is a Bath resident.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Democracy at stake as Ohio Republicans look to grow majority