In Other States, Legislators Have Gotten Expelled for a Lot Less than Walking Out | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

In Other States, Legislators Have Gotten Expelled for a Lot Less than Walking Out

Here in Oregon, expelling legislators for their views is not our jam

Everyone loves an underdog story – that classic tale of the little guy, by sheer will and determination, overcoming an obstacle that would seem impossible to the average person. And while the legislators who have now exceeded the number of unexcused absences allowed under Oregon's Constitution might see themselves as the heroes of a story about the morals around abortion or the right of every adult in Oregon over 18 to possess any weapon they want, we see this tale of Biblical proportions butting up against the other very big player in modern society: the business of commerce and of governments to be able to keep the engines of progress running.

click to enlarge In Other States, Legislators Have Gotten Expelled for a Lot Less than Walking Out
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Truth be told, neither of these forces – neither the forces of capitalism nor the forces of morality tend to be all that meaningful for a lot of people. Perhaps that's why journalists become journalists – so that we can work in a space with a third type of guiding light: the light of facts, and of majorities, and of people playing by the rules that the majority, as a collective, created together. If there's a law in place, a journalist will tell you the story of someone not following that rule. If there's a statistically valid survey that reflects the opinions of a community, we'll look to that to explain how a community is thinking on an issue. Similarly, we'll report about the number of people who voted one way or another on an issue.

We're doing that now, as we watch a handful of legislators in the Oregon Senate stymie almost all of the other work in the Oregon legislature.

Here are the facts: Oregonians, as a wide majority, believe that people should have the right to an abortion if and when they need one. (Coincidentally, so do a number of people from Idaho, who come across the border to access abortion services in Oregon in increasing numbers.) With the passage of Measure 114 in 2020, Oregonians also expressed their opinions about the need to implement some measures of safety around guns. And, as we also pointed out last week, Oregonians also expressed their desire to see their legislators do the work they were hired to do or lose their position as legislators. But even amid all that evidence that we, as a state, have a clear set of priorities agreed upon by the majority, here come more of our elected leaders who, instead of showing up to work and expressing their views by voting or by floor speeches, are instead filing a legal challenge to try and say that what was recently enshrined in the Oregon Constitution around legislators' unexcused absences should not be upheld.

These are some of the same legislators who pushed for Oregonians to get back to work faster during the pandemic. They're among those who expressed support for "medical freedom" around vaccine mandates.

But now, when it's time for our legislators in Oregon to get back to work, or for them to at least show up to a floor vote around other people's rights to express their medical freedom around abortion, they're perfectly happy to dig in their heels and act like the Democratic majority is the oppressor.

In other states, legislators whose views have not aligned with the majority party have seen far worse happen to them than being confronted with a Constitutional amendment enforcing their presence. Two Democratic Tennessee legislators were expelled (and later reinstated) because they joined a protest on gun violence. A transgender Democratic legislator in Montana is not allowed onto the House floor this session, simply for making commentary related to violence against transgender people. These removals are breaches of the public trust that should enrage every person who voted for those legislators. The legislators have a right, as elected leaders, to represent their constituents.

Here in Oregon, expelling legislators for their views is not our jam. In spite of the differences in opinion, the majority party would very much like them to simply show up.

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