All we heard from these clowns the last two years was things like don’t you DARE touch the gay marriage law – the Legislature already “settled” the issue. How DARE you Republicans even consider revisiting that law! They adopted the mantra that once done, always done when it comes to the law. Sure, the body politic had decided that the Democrats were the extremists and threw them out of office in 2010. Well, as what always happens, the pendulum swings and the Dems have retaken Concord. Will they also stand firm on their crie-du-coer of “settled” law now that they are in power again?
Hardly. From Pravda-on-the-Merrimac (aka, the Concord Monitor that IS to the NH Dem Party as Pravda was to that other Party) just two days after the election:
Money matters aside, there’s plenty for Hassan and the new Legislature to do, and undo, next year.
The new House should start by exorcising the chamber with the abolition of the goofy but dangerous Regress of Grievances Committee. Then, with the support of the governor, the Legislature should, in short order, repeal the so-called voucher law that, contrary to the spirit if not the letter of the state Constitution, redirects money meant for the general fund to non-public education, including religious schools.
Hassan and the new Legislature should also give the recently-enacted voter ID law the ax. It risks disenfranchising some voters and, in the absence of any evidence of voter fraud, is an unnecessary and meaningless encumbrance on the process.
They should work to repeal the misguided parental notification law on abortion. And they should revisit the new “stand your ground” law and the policy that permits civilians to bring guns into the State House.
You can be sure that this mouthpiece is signaling two things:
- Their consistency lasts only as long as they say it does (which is to be boiled down to “two faced”)
- You can be sure that the Dems will show the same lack of remembering their history.
It also validates what I have said for years; if a law changed something once, then another law can change it again – stop yer whining. So, we are back to the stuff that Dems do best: social engineering by denying that ordinary folks can adequately run their own lives:
- Redress: when every other avenue is over, the Dems wish to make sure that there is no last resort with elected officials. Statist status quo vs personal freedom.
- Voucher: only the State knows what is best for children – it lessens the Freedom for parents to decide what is best for their children. Instead, treat no child different than any other and keep them trapped in failing schools with hard to get rid of union teachers. Statist status quo vs personal freedom.
- Voter ID: they are just sourpussed that a single reporter had the audacity to do what they refused to look at – the stealing of votes. They also refuse to see the mountainous amount of evident collected by the Coalition of NH Taxpayers Chair, Ed Naile. After all, we can’t risk disenfranchising the Democrat Party, eh? Statist status quo vs personal freedom.
- Parental Notification- misguided? That a minor child can be take by other adults and never tell the parents? The DNC Convention was famous for saying “Government is the only thing we all belong to”; the Concord Monitor is fine that our kids belong to the Government all right. Statist status quote vs personal freedom.
- Stand your Ground: For all their kvetching and worrying about the Wild Wild West and rivers of blood running down the State House steps. Hmm, haven’t seen a SINGLE story about that, eh? It’s not about the safety, it’s about the control. Statist status quo vs personal freedom.
What the Republicans tried to do in the last session was to push control “of stuff” out of Concord and out of Government and back to where it belonged – the Individual and the Parents. What a sorry state of affairs for this output of the Democrat Party. Remember: they’re all in with you belonging to Government.
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A couple other observations:
Chief among those is an improving economy, one that should increase state revenue and reduce, to a degree, the need for social services.
If Maggie “The Red” decides to also revisit MaggieCare and decided that State control of the private marketplace, continuing the philosophy that private companies are mere extentions of what Government wants them to do, there will be no improvement. By the way, CM, how’s your subscription rates doing- improving??
Hassan also won’t have her nominations blocked and initiatives thwarted by an Executive Council that saw itself as a super-legislature with the final say in policy. She will not have a House heavy with ideologues and run by an irascible tyrant. She will have, instead, a Democratic majority in the House.
Trust me, the Dems are just as much ideologues as those on the Right; instead of holding up the Individual and trying to unbind them from Government over-entanglement (something that obviously scares the crap out of both the CM and their toadies as well as the Dem Party), they promote The Collective. Gosh, CM, how does that fit with what the Founders thought what the Press was to do? Certainly not be in the tank for just one side, eh?
The Senate’s final makeup remains to be determined by recounts in two races, but it will likely be split 13-11 or 12-12 and more moderate than its predecessor. The changed makeup means at least a temporary end to the wasted time, distraction and animosity caused by Republican attempts to repeal the state’s gay marriage law and impose right-to-work legislation designed to lower wages for New Hampshire workers.
Once again, we see that consistency is not their strong suit. They advocate for repeal of law they DON’T like, yet excoriate the Rs for doing the exact same thing. And with the RTW, we see the journalistic malfeasance – go ahead, CM, show me IN THE LAW where the intent was to lower wages. I’ll save you the time – it doesn’t. All it meant was that folks could go in, get their own terms, and not be beholden to the CM’s pet unions (that is, pets until THEIR unions decide to squeak up).
There is much to be done next year. Fortunately, some of can be accomplished without money that the new governor will need time to find.
And setting the stage for more taxes, fees, and fines, dudes?
