Martha, my wife loves to plant and fertilize. When I can’t walk on the walks, I prune.
Plants can deal with pruning. Elk nibble off the tender ends. Plants can deal with us butchers.
It’s time to consider pruning here in Idaho.
Some legislators have called for an Article 5 Constitutional Convention to alter our Federal Constitution. If 2/3 of the states (33) make that call it should happen. We are currently at 28 states who have made such a call.
Idaho has not made that commitment.
Some argue for a balanced budget clause in our federal Constitution. Some worry such a convention would go rogue.
So why don’t we try it here?
Idaho has an archaic Constitution.
Let’s have a Convention to fix it.
I love fixing things. You should see the mess in my garage.
When Idaho (wisely) amended our state Constitution about how we redistrict we forgot to remove our 1890’s founders’ definition of “apportionment” signifying who gets represented in the legislature. There
are still Idaho Constitutional designations for representatives from counties that no longer exist.
Let’s clean up this mess.
While we’re at it, maybe we could agree on taxation.
Our state dominant Republican party wants to abolish property tax. If so, they have to rewrite Article VII of the Idaho Constitution. I would encourage all of you to read our Idaho founders words there. It was clear those old guys wanted the rich robber barons owning the mines and railroads to pay their fair share.
Maybe we current Idahoans don’t.
So maybe we need to get about rewriting our defining document.
Other states have done this. It’s not AI, rocket science. We just have to get a bunch of people together and they have to work to agree on some principles.
Like, should we let go of our Idaho Constitutional demand for funding public education? We have subverted public funding to charter schools and now home schools and religious schools with no oversight. Maybe this ideal is outdated. It’s worth a statewide conversation.
Maybe most Idahoans don’t know our own Constitution. Maybe they don’t care what was once written down as a founding document to direct us.
Maybe my worry about pruning and cleaning up my garage shop is beyond their daily concerns. I appreciate that.
But we have a mess before us. Among us.
We should clean up our mess.
250 years ago our rich, landowner, slave holder founders inspired a bunch of us weak, worthless pogues to grab muskets and fight for “independence”. And we won.
So let’s do the work.
It doesn’t involve stealing cannons from Ticonderoga or crossing the Delaware. It just means we need to share our ideals and write them down.
Idaho needs a Constitutional Convention.
The Idaho Constitution, written in a hot summer of 1889 might have served us for this while. I applaud those who call for an Article 5 convention to amend the US Constitution.
But we should be looking more closely. If you really care about governance, why not clean up our own mess here in Idaho?
Indeed, this was the dream of those old founders. That states would be the laboratories of democracy.
So let’s get to it.
Quit writing bills and getting them passed that flout our founders’ principles.
Call for a new writing of what you believe. Put it down in ink on paper. And get us huddled masses to approve our vision.
What has been happening on the federal level and indeed on our state level is opposed to the Constitutional mandates written by our old guys.
If we want something new, we should argue it out.
This back door shit has to stop.
Call for a state Constitutional Convention. Let’s get real.
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