Legislature '14: It's For the Kids. Really?

Minnesota State Capitol (Photo credit: Mulad)

The Minnesota Legislature finished its 2014 session a few days ahead of the mandated deadline, but they did get a lot done.  (That's what happens when the House, Senate and the Governor are all from one party, which in this case was the Democrats.)  They agreed on tax cuts, a $1 billion bonding bill, raising the minimum wage, and a new Senate office building.

They also didn't approve Sunday liquor sales, restricted the sale and use of e-cigarettes, and required smartphones to have kill switches.

Other than that, this legislative session was all about children--or it sure seemed that way.  Minnesota passed the toughest bill on medical marijuana in the country, approving ways for people with certain ailments to take the drug that don't involve smoking it.  But the debate was framed in such a way that a vote for medical marijuana would keep all those sick children and their parents from fleeing to Colorado, where it is currently legal.  A vote against it meant siding with those meanies who happen to work in law enforcement, to which Governor Mark Dayton was staking his political future.

It wasn't a fair fight.  With the news media looking for stories that play to their 18-49 female demographic base, families turned up at the Capitol to push pictures of their sick children at TV cameras and any legislators who happened to be listening to their tales of woe.  Lo and behold, a compromise was worked out and flights to Denver were canceled.

The same scenario played out for the bullying issue.  This cause du jour prompted the Legislature to approve a bill that requires schools to investigate bullying cases, and to train teachers and staff to help prevent it.  All this after countless hearings in which the same tactics used by medical marijuana proponents to dominate the debate were used here.  Going forward, will these people realize that they themselves are just as guilty of bullying as the kid who demanded your lunch money?

Using children to further your political agenda is not a new idea.  They've been used to protest wars and abortion, create new traffic laws when none were needed before, marginalize sex offenders to places where no one else would want to live, turn schools into minimum security facilities, etc.
And not to sound too negative, children have also been used to justify tax increases to fund expansion of schools and athletic facilities.

They say that children are our future.  Yes, but right now they are children.  Every law there is that purportedly benefits children affects adults too, and not always in a good way.  The real problem is the adults who try to control other people's behavior through children.  Getting certain legislation passed has a better chance if that child is sick or dead, and the law is passed with that child's name on it.

That's why issues such as medical marijuana and bullying must be debated intelligently and seriously, instead of playing to the TV cameras as an emotional issue.  We can't have a democracy where everything is decided on a whim, right?  Isn't that how certain dictators did business?