The Indiana General Assembly opens its short session today, and the mood leading into it is just as contentious as a year ago when Democrats left the state until Republicans took right-to-work legislation off the table.
Since there is no budget to consider, Republicans, backed by Gov. Daniels, will spend their political capital on right to work, which would make it illegal for labor contracts to force the collecting of union dues. Since no one can be forced to join a union in Indiana, this law would be passed just to defund unions, which is a Republican goal. In response, Democrats have cried foul and the Statehouse has braced for an onslaught of union protesters.
Anticipating this, the Daniels administration has set a 3,000 capacity for the Statehouse (which includes the employees). The Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is claiming the restriction is unconstitutional. “The right of the people peaceably to assemble” is part of the First Amendment.
To rile union members and the ACLU even further is the fact that special groups — such as an opening day prayer group — will have special access to the Statehouse.
Both houses of the Legislature are in firm Republican control, which means that Daniels’ agenda — called Daniels’ conservative laboratory by The Associated Press — is likely to pass amidst a few Democratic whimpers and little else. Unless, of course, the Democrats decide to visit Illinois again.
We’ve been witnessing this hyper-partisanship at the federal level and in various states since the 2010 election. Indiana’s walkout of Democrats and teacher protests last year were mild compared to the enormous demonstrations in Wisconsin and Ohio. Republicans are also in control in those states. Laws are being passed or obstructed based on a narrow agenda that serves a minority of the constituency.
In other words, Republicans are forgetting that there are more people in Indiana than registered Republicans. A lot more. Indiana has been reliably Republican in most elections, though the state has often picked Democratic governors and voted for President Barack Obama in 2008.
To the winner goes the spoils in war, but politics and the resulting lawmaking shouldn’t be a war. Legislators should have loyalty to all Indiana residents not just those sympathetic to the party. Ramming through laws based on ideology and not worth creates resentment and division.
The session that starts today should be about what is best for all Hoosiers and not just those agreeable to the conservative laboratory.
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.