New Procedural Changes in the Legislative Assembly Leave Nationalists with Fewer Options
Thursday December 8, 2022
CHEMEKETA-- The Legislative Assembly passed a resolution on Thursday to amend quorum procedures in the chamber, reducing the required MLA’s present from 64 down to 52 of the 96 seats. This resolution is set to take effect in the next Legislative Session in February.
This move was met with heavy criticism from the minority Oregon Nationalist Party (ONP) leadership decrying it as a ‘power grab’. The ruling Liberal Democrats (LDPO) have discussed openly changing procedural rules for a long while. However, pressure to change these rules increased within the past year as nationalist MLA’s have more frequently walked out of the chamber in protest of climate change legislation they see as ‘objectionable’.
“It is absolutely a catastrophic power grab from the ghoulish puppet masters of the so-called Liberal Democratic Party”, said Dr. Jordan Peterson, leader of the ONP. “Anyone can see that they are trying to silence any opposition in the Assembly to maintain the purity of their “esteemed” post-modern neo-Marxist ideology. Our party wants to stop that, but they clearly have no respect for a western idea that they probably never heard of-- its called Dem-o-cracy, they should look it up!”
Traditionally, a two-thirds threshold in the chamber was established for quorum. However over the last few decades the opposition party in the chamber used it to shut down Assembly business whenever they found a bill objectionable. It was first used by the Liberal Democrats in 1997, but seldom used. However with increasing political tension in the country, the practice has become more common-- particularly under Liberal Democratic rule. Under the leadership of Dr. Jordan Peterson, this practice has increased substantially alongside other tactics to hinder legislative business, such as insisting on the full text of bills being read out loud before they are put up to a vote. Liberal Democrats have called these tactics ‘obstructionist’ and threatened to change quorum rules.
“This is just plain disrespectful to our work and to our democracy.” said Tina Kotek, speaker of the Legislative Assembly who is a LDPO member. “I would have preferred to keep the quorum where it is now, to make sure the opposition have their chance to participate. But they have made it clear they don't want to participate so we will have to change the rules to make sure the government is delivering results for Oregonians.”
This change, though opposed by the ONP leadership, has broad support in Oregon with roughly 63% of respondents in favor of the change and only 28% opposed to it in a recent survey done by The Oregonian. This reflects similar polls on the question of an upcoming initiative set next year on whether MLA’s with more than 6 unexcused absences should be disqualified from holding office for the next term, described by one respondent as “if you do not show up to work, you get fired… same thing for MLA’s”.
