The Race For Stupidest State Legislature

The race for the title of Stupidest State Legislature in the United States has really heated up in the last few weeks. I had thought this was a title that would belong to the Texas state legislature year after year, but a couple of other states have now made a bold bid to snatch the title away from Texas. And I have to admit, they are both leaving Texas in the dust this year. Of course, Texas has a disadvantage since its legislature only meets every two years.

The first contender is the Arizona legislature. They passed a racist and unconstitutional law which would force it's police to engage in racial profiling, and would force its own citizens (at least those who aren't white) to carry identity papers or go to jail. That looked like a sure winner, but then another state legislature jumped into the fray.

Oklahoma legislators decided that they could be even stupider. After all, the bill passed by Arizona would only take rights away from about a third of their citizens. Oklahoma decided they would infringe upon the rights of a majority of their own citizens -- women. They had to put those women in their place, lest they start thinking they had rights equal to men and began to believe they were smart enough to make their own decisions regarding their own bodies.

As everyone knows, women are just second-class citizens and need the wise males in the state legislature to make their decisions for them. So the Oklahoma legislators passed not one, but two laws to rein in the decision-making ability of those uppity women. They had to, because that's what god wanted them to do.

The first law would force all pregnant women to view a sonogram of the fetus, and then listen to a description of what the sonogram shows. This requirement is actually aimed at women considering an abortion. It evidently never occurs to these male legislators that this could actually psychologically damage these women if they do abort the fetus, or force women to have a baby they are not psychologically or financially able to raise. These legislators are only interested in protecting fetuses -- not real babies or women.

The second law would protect fundamentalist doctors, who through choice or negligence, do not notify a pregnant woman (or her spouse) about medical problems with the fetus she is carrying. The woman (or parents) would not be able to sue a doctor who kept those medical problems a secret. The legislators don't seem to care that those problems could create a lifetime of suffering for the baby after birth and create hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for the parent(s). Once again, they only care about fetuses -- not people, and if told about the medical problems, the woman might choose to have an abortion.

But Oklahoma has a better governor than Arizona, and he chose to veto both of these obnoxious laws. Governor Brad Henry said the legislation "was an attempt by the Oklahoma legislature to insert government into the private lives and decisions of its citizens." The governor was right, but that wasn't about to stop the legislators.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives overrode the governor's vetoes on votes of 81-14 and 84-12. The Oklahoma Senate then approved both bills on a 36-12 vote. The bills will now become law, and like similar bills passed by Oklahoma in the past, will have to be tossed out by a court (as I'm sure they will be).

I believe this gives Oklahoma a slight edge in the race for Stupidest State Legislature. In fact, it may be a two-for, giving them not only the lead for stupidest legislature, but also the title of meanest legislature. But the year is still young, and I'm sure there will be some other states making their bid for the title.