SB1159: Constitutional mockery

Idaho GOP legislators’ arrogance is breathtaking. Legislators aren’t kings invested with unanswerable, unlimited power to rule. Government should represent ALL its citizens. But, one-party-rule has so stifled Idaho that GOP legislators apparently believe being the “limited government” party means limiting citizen rights to have any impact on how we’re governed.

For sox years, the GOP controlled Legislature refused to provide the poorest Idahoans health care in spite of growing voter demand. When voters mobilized and gathered sufficient signatures to place a Medicaid expansion initiative on the ballot, it passed by a margin exceeding 61 percent. This galvanized hard-liners determined to retain absolute, regressive legislative control.

Consequently, the GOP conspired to penalize voters for claiming our Constitutional rights as citizens, and for declaring our community responsibility to the vulnerable in defiance of legislative inaction and fecklessness. SB1159 is expressly constructed to nullify Idaho Constitution’s Article III, Section I: “The people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws, and enact the same at the polls independent of the legislature.” SB1159 is intended to permanently deny citizens any future exercise of our constitutionally guaranteed rights to propose and enact laws through the ballot.

This mustn’t go unopposed. Contact Gov. Brad Little, express opposition to the stripping of your Constitutional rights and urge his veto. Work to defeat legislators supporting the theft of your rights. If this stands, “government of the people, by the people and for the people” is a mockery and your voice in governance is irrevocably diminished.

CAROLYN F. MATTOON

Hayden