The South Dakota 2015 Legislative session is in full swing. This is my 21st winter in South Dakota, and it still kind of makes my hair stand on end when Pierre gets rolling.
This year, Republicans continue to use their supermajority status to basically cement their stranglehold on our political process. Two great examples this time:
Doubling the number of signatures required to refer a law or initiate a statewide referendum (to punish us for passing an indexed minimum wage last year -- and, they are going to repeal the index part!) Repealing the "Daschle law" -- passed to prevent Sen. Daschle from running for VP and the Senate in 2004 -- so you know who can in 2016. Because freedom.And if the power grabbing isn't ugly enough, they have a bill in the mill to prevent our high-school activities association from setting any anti-discrimination or anti-bullying policies that concern sexual orientation or gender identity, and of course we have the obligatory ask to the SCOTUS to repeal Roe while shaming women. Of course, I could go on (they certainly do).
I'm just glad the session only lasts a few fortnights (39 legislative days). Can you imagine what damage they would do if they were there longer?