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It May Be Time For The Oregon Option To Go National
The House of Representatives has gone mad, and like COVID, the stupidity has gone viral in Washington DC. Some Senators seem to be suffering from the lack of oxygen necessary to make coherent decisions, as well coherent arguments. Viral stupidity is spreading beyond elected officials to include the media, faculty lounges, state governments, federal appointees, and former elected officials.
Knife fights are now a rite of passage for angry teens, all carbon dioxide must be eliminated, and we must obey the ayatollahs of social media. Every argument, counter-argument, proposal, and counter-proposal must be accompanied by shouts of racism. Political commissars in the corporate, military, and civil world root out individual thought, and ensure collective guilt must be the standard observed in every decision.
There is a difference between governing, and ruling. Oregon is what I call a city-state. Half the state lives in three counties, and then two more counties along Interstate 5 vote with the big three counties. Rural Oregon is underrepresented and at the mercy of the Wokeinistas. All is not lost because Republican reps can flee to Idaho to kill any legislation and end a legislative session.
Republican Senators in Washington DC have the same option. No quorum, no legislation. I know that this can become a double-edged sword, but one should remember that no one’s life, liberty, or property is safe when the legislature is in session. From DC statehood to allowing the dead to vote, a walk-out is far less expensive than secession, unless you believe the road to Hell is not paved with good intentions.
Published in Politics
It used to be that state senates could operate like the US senate. Senate districts could be apportioned according to land, not population. Unfortunately, an activist US Supreme Court said that arrangement violates the US constitution. State senators must be elected just like representatives from districts with an equal numbers of citizens. Once that became the law of the land, many states became like Oregon, where the laws are made by city dwellers without any consideration of the rural citizens and their concerns.
I expect that if Republicans withhold a quorum, the Democrats will proceed immediately with their agenda either through illegal passage of laws and Presidential signature, or by decree.
The result will be an immediate true Constitutional crisis.
I am not saying that that is good or bad, only that the Republican Party or rank-and-file will have to have a next move planned, or the Democrats will resolve the crisis in the way the Progressivists prefer: unchallenged single-party rule.
That is already happening in the House. There are no hearings on proposed legislation. DC statehood has a simple solution that is grounded in the past. Simply allow DC residents to become citizens of Maryland, and they can vote in Maryland elections for Senate, and House representation.
There are enough Dems to provide a quorum and a quorum can be declared without a count.
It requires 51 members of the Senate to constitute a quorum, the Dems have 50, the Republicans have 50. Although it’s customary to assume a quorum is always present, if it becomes obvious that there are no Republicans on Capitol Hill then no legislation can proceed. Vice President Harris does not count on quorum matters.
It would be difficult, especially when you have holier than thou Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Lisa Murkowski that identify as Republicans.
Doesn’t someone have to call for a count? If the Republicans all leave, and no Democrat asks for a count, then what?
And if one Republican stayed to ask for a count, they would have a quorum.
I think that a better, higher probability, strategy is to exert extreme pressure on Democrats Manchin and Sinema. Manchin, in particular, should have extraordinary pressure brought to bear on his entire extended family in West Virginia such that he rediscovers real fear of his voters and forced respect for the Constitution.
I remember one time when Texas Democrats fled to Oklahoma for similar reasons. Didn’t know it was a thing for the GOP in OR.
The Dems did it in Wisconsin to try to block Scott Walkers Act 10 too.
Faintly rings a bell.