Returning Control of Idaho’s Legislative Agenda to the People

Posted by zeth 1337
December 2, 2005

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Gay people do not bother me. I do not feel personally threatened by them. I have had several friends who are gay, and their mere existence in the world has not troubled me in the least.

My personal view of their homosexual choices is widely reflected among Idaho’s conservative minds, and is best summed up by the t-shirt wisdom:

“Silly fa&&ots, d!ck$ are for chicks”

However, my political view of homosexuals is that they are not truly bothering me or interfering in my marriage. The whole debate over gay marriage is silly and distracting from the real issues facing our governance.

I dispute many conservative claims that gay marriage hurts traditional marriage. Please! I put forward into the debate that hot straight people strain traditional marriages much more than gay marriages.

Consider a husband shopping in public, and he sees a hot, stacked blond wearing a tight t-shirt that proclaims, “Try Me”. How could a gay marriage conducted in a private home strain a marriage more than this straight hottie engaging in extreme public flirtation?

I am grossly disappointed to hear that our speaker of the house Bruce Newcomb plans to start the 2006 legislature with a gay-marriage ban. He obviously is out of touch with the real issues that are affecting most Idahoans.


This type of thing happens annually, though. The legislature takes on their personal vendettas and ignores the tough issues that really need to be addressed, such as our low average wages, health care, and the numerous educational deficiencies we are mired in.

Here’s a radical idea: why not include a long list of issues facing the state with every November ballot? Voters can number the issues with priority to those issues they want to see at least addressed (if not resolved) in the next legislative session. The top 10 issues garnering the highest voted priorities would then legally have to be addressed in some way by the legislature before they can even discuss any of their other pet projects or personal vendettas.

This solution by no means guarantees our most pressing issues would get resolved. However by legally prioritizing the legislatures first ten agenda items we are more likely to get progress on the issues that really matter. Our elected representatives may also finally start to realize what actually matters to voters.

This idea could never be passed by our legislature, and needs to be brought to a public vote by referendum. Comments?

Politics

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