Port: As this ignominious legislative session nears an end, the NDGOP charts a course for more of the same
MINOT, N.D. — I began the first draft of this column by arguing that this Legislature, currently in the closing days of its session in Bismarck, has been dysfunctional.
In some ways, that’s apt. Our lawmakers have been so focused on culture-war hullabaloo that they can’t finish their work. They’ve taken to skirting the state’s constitutional limit on legislative days with a loophole that allows them to meet and get paid, though without gaveling in for an official floor session.
That, to a reasonable person, is dysfunctional. But for fans of banning books and criminalizing pronouns?
It’s, well, functional.
There is a constituency in North Dakota that is getting exactly what it wants from this Legislature. I don’t believe they represent a political majority in the statewide electorate, but they seem to represent a majority of those showing to influence the candidate selection process for our state’s most powerful political party.
