MINOT, N.D. — Last year, Bastiat Caucus founder, Rep. Rick Becker of Bismarck, in an indignant letter to the editor, claimed there are “30 dues-paying legislators in the Bastiat Caucus this biennium.” That’s a big number. If it’s true, it would mean that this rump caucus of Trump-aligned politicians, while representing only a minority of the NDGOP caucus,…
Trump Must Still Be Convicted
The conviction would still matter. Many Trump apologists would have us believe that the impeachment and pending conviction vote are pointless now that Trump has left office. They’d like us to believe that these things are just exercises in the sort of petty partisan politics that have become rote in Washington, D.C. They are wrong.…
Plain Talk: Lawmaker Wants to Use the Legacy Fund to Address North Dakota’s Legacy Problems
North Dakota’s Legacy Fund, since it was created by the Legislature and approved by voters in 2010, has turned a slice of the state’s oil tax revenues into a nearly $8 billion pot of money. That balance is invested in stocks and bonds across the nation, and the world, including in some ways that, as…
The Electoral College Serves America Well
MINOT, N.D. — There are many undemocratic aspects of the American system of government. It was designed that way. These are not bugs, as a coder might say. They’re features. The Senate, for instance, is not a democratic institution. Senators weren’t even popularly elected until the 17th Amendment came along. It usually takes something more than a…
Biden Begins by Kicking Oil Country in the Teeth
Environmental activists may be cheering, but here in North Dakota, an epicenter of support for Trump in no small part because of the belligerence Democrats have shown toward the oil and gas industry, renewed hostility to pipelines means real harm for real people. Continue reading…
Legislature Should Say ‘no’ to Money-Grubbing Municipal Courts
Did you know that most municipal court judges in North Dakota don’t even have law degrees? Continue reading…
Lawmakers Tacitly Admit That Supreme Court Got District 8 Ruling Wrong
House Bill 1461 was introduced by House Majority Leader Chet Pollert and co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, the bosses of the Republican legislative caucus and two of the loudest voices backing Delzer’s not-at-all democratic return to their chambers. What does the bill do? It writes the statute the Legislature claimed, in their legal…
Legislature Should Absolutely Overturn Fargo’s (Already Illegal) Restrictions on Gun Sales
MINOT, N.D. — Some of Fargo’s city leaders need to be reminded that their community is not some autonomous city-state. Fargo is, in fact, a political subdivision of the State of North Dakota. I’m writing in the context of the debate over a Fargo ordinance outlawing transactions for firearms in private homes. We aren’t talking…
Let’s See Violent Pipeline Protesters the Same Way We See Violent Trump Supporters
The problem is not opposing pipelines and oil production, or believing the 2020 election was somehow stolen from Trump, though I, and I suspect many of you, find both positions to be equivalently wrong-headed. The problem is people who have concluded that their cause is so righteous they are justified in scaring and even hurting…
Conservatives Need to Get Out of the Ghetto
No longer feeling welcomed by Hollywood, or our nation’s campuses, or even the national news media, conservatives went and carved out their own space. In some ways, that’s healthy, a perfectly natural reaction to the sort of institutional gatekeeping that was locking conservatives out. It’s also had a curdling effect on the movement. Continue reading…