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| Intent at careful amending of Minnesota's Constitution to preserve its dignity, integrity, and ethereal permanence through time. |
Next question, what if anything do Republicans respect? Some, thinking themselves "strict constructionists," favor a Constitution they can understand, interpret, and rely upon as a steady, guiding, and unyielding beacon of freedom and lasting enlightenment, over time. One that restrains the power of government to impose upon the people. Others respect the moment.
The Republicans in the Minnesota legislature are in a peculiar position. They control both houses, but are unable to pass any of their far right agenda due to DFL Governor Mark Dayton.
To get around Dayton's veto power, Republicans will be legislating via ballot measure.
So far in the first week of the 2012 legislative session, Republicans have introduced 7 constitutional amendments for the 2012 ballot:
HF1928 - Abortion funding ban constitutional amendment
HF1908 - Repeal income tax & all corporate taxes, replace with general tax constitutional amendment
HF1898 - Obamacare doesn't apply to MN constitutional amendment
HF1877 - Constitution amendments require super majority [... actually this one is the DFL wanting a 2/3 legislative vote in hope of forestalling mischief, i.e., 2/3 in the legislature before any amending goes to the ballot]
HF1845 - School shifts cannot exceed 10% constitutional amendment
HF430 - Right to bear arms consitutional amendment
HF65 - Right to work constitutional amendment
I had guessed they'd introduce 18 possible amendments and I'm right on 6 of 7. Decent batting average so far.
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Last session, Republicans worked on 32 items other than the budget. And we all remember how they wouldn't pass a balanced budget nor negotiate with Gov. Dayton and they shut down the state.
This session will be no different. While Republicans claim their top priority is job creation, they refuse to consider Dayton's bonding bill which would put 25,000 Minnesotans to work on shovel-ready projects.
Instead of creating any jobs, instead of passing a bonding bill, here are some ballot measures that I think the Republicans will consider:
1. Abortion banned in all circumstances.
2. Right to work (aka Destroy The Unions).
3. Arrest and deport the brown-skinned people.
4. Ban union dues (or something to this effect).
5. Term limits (and maybe just for DFLers)
6. Super majority needed to raise taxes.
7. No federal law that Republicans dislike applies to MN.
8. Pay equity for women is illegal.
9. Urine test welfare recipients.
10. Polluters monitor themselves.
11. Minneapolis, St. Paul & Duluth not allowed to whine about LGA or education funding.
12. Right to Pray (Christians only).
13. English is official language.
14. Eliminate one or more state department(s).
15. Ban human cloning.
16. All peer-reviewed climate science is bogus.
17. State should print its own money.
18. After all MNGOP amendments pass, it takes 2/3 majority to put any more measures on the ballot (like ones to undo their amendments).
Did I forget/miss any?
Hat tip for that, here and here, (note especially, HF 65, which lifts verbatim ALEC written union-busting "model" legislation wording for which one unusual demagogue has not felt shamed or intimidated in claiming to be "chief author" while it was ALEC that did his "thinking"). I say "unusual demagogue" in that Drazkowski did attain more than his share of income sucking at the public teat, with a spouse who is a US Postal employee (with such attitudes, dare I say postal worker).
With the care and skill of chain-saw dentistry, these of-the-moment damn-the-consequences Republicans show they may well architect a "nouveau-cherished" Minnesota Constitution analogous to the hanging-together integrity of this:
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Some of the Republicans of today's of-the-moment and of the theo-moment may still respect and stand for what they've trumpeted as their ingrained, enduring, driving value set, in the past:
The "Might makes Right," amend-it attitude that the short-term thinkers have ignores all the Federalist debate and the warnings of people such as Madison about "tyrrany of the majority," i.e., the worry over the extreme governmental risks such a tyrrany, if unchecked, can entail.
The Pinkerton-ALEC mentality is particularly egregious, and restrictive of workers' right and liberty to organize and to effectively bargain collectively against what otherwise would often be an overwhelming major corporate inequality of bargaining position - consider Boeing, and an individual aerospace machinist.