In the age of cable news, political blogs and social media, it’s easy to focus on the political news in Washington, D.C. The noise clogs the pores of all three major cable news networks and permeates throughout the front pages of newspapers until it makes its way onto the web.
Ignore the noise coming from Washington, and start looking at what’s happening in state legislatures across the country. That’s where the action is, and in recent weeks, some of the bills pushed by legislators are downright scary.
Several states — including Arizona, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee — are pushing bills that would strengthen religious freedoms and essentially allow discrimination on the basis of that religious freedom. It sounds simple enough: An individual cannot have his or her freedoms stripped based on religion. On the surface, the bill sounds downright American.
Sadly, the religious freedom bills are not attempts to protect people’s rights to practice a religion. Instead, it allows for discrimination.
Need an example?
Say a restaurant owner doesn’t want to serve a gay or lesbian couple in his or her restaurant. Guess what? The religious freedom bills would legally allow that restaurant owner to kick them out based on his or her religious views.
Yes, states throughout the country are debating measures that would legalize discrimination.
Need further examples of just how far state governments are going? Take a look at our neighbor to the north.
Just this year, Republican-led Georgia has filed or passed a religious freedom bill; a bill to completely prevent the Affordable Care Act from taking effect in the state; several bills and resolutions calling on the country to have a Constitutional convention — something that hasn’t happened since the original convention; a bill that would allow guns in churches, bars and many government buildings. And just last week, a bill was filed that would allow sex offenders into Georgia schools.
In Kansas, after years of cutting public education funding, some parents had enough and sued the state, claiming the state’s constitution mandated public schools receive adequate funding. The case made its way to the state Supreme Court, which is expected to decide on the case soon.
What happens if the court sides with the parents and forces the state to fund public schools?
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the conservative-dominated Legislature plan to ignore the ruling and subsequently pass legislation preventing the state’s court system from making decisions on education.
Even here in Florida — another state run by the Republicans — controversy almost always emanates from the Capitol walls in Tallahassee. Just last month, legislators started pushing a self-defense bill that would allow those who feel threatened to fire a warning shot in the air. As if the stand your ground law wasn’t enough, now we might have the chance to fire off a round, Wild-West style.
Single-party rule dominates state legislatures across the country. As of 2012, 36 states had single-party rule. And in many states led by Republicans, we are seeing increasingly conservative legislation that seems downright brazen.
It’s easy to ignore our state Legislature. Heck, most of us are lucky if we can name our state representative or our state senator, let alone identify them both. Regardless of whether we realize it, state legislatures have far more control over us than federal Congress. The news might convince you otherwise, but Congress didn’t pass the stand your ground law. The Florida Legislature did. And it’s not the U.S. Congress trying to pass a bill, so business owners can legally discriminate and use their religion as a shield. State legislatures are doing that.
So next time you start railing on how awful D.C. can be, and why we need to fire everyone in Congress, maybe you should take a look at your state legislature first. What they’re trying to do is far more frightening than anything happening in Washington.
[Joel Mendelson is a UF graduate student in political campaigning. His columns appear on Mondays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 2/24/2014 under the headline "State legislatures are more important than Congress, so pay attention"]
