Representative Lee Qualm is confused. The Republican Majority Leader from Platte tells the press that he’s disappointed that social issues dominate the South Dakota Legislature:
“It’s unfortunate that it seems like the social issues just do grab a lot of air.” said House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, a Platte Republican. “It’s just the nature of the subject.”
But hot-topic issues can wear legislators out and take energy from other issues that are important but less controversial, said Qualm, who has introduced a bill that would stop schools and colleges from requiring students to get vaccinations. Some of the bills this session may represent a “backlash” to the liberal leanings of popular culture, he said [Stephen Groves, “Lawmakers: Social Issues Grabbing ‘Lots of Air’ This Session,” AP via The Hour, 2020.02.07].
Majority Leader Qualm recognizes the harm done by throwing all these stemwinding social issues in the hopper, yet he himself brings an anti-vaccination bill that his own party spin blog recognizes endangers public health. Reporter Seth Tupper reminds us that vaccines got rid of polio:
SD Rep. Lee Qualm has a bill to drop vaccination requirements. His birth year, 1954, there were 18,308 polio cases and 1,368 polio deaths in the US. The next year, the polio vaccine became available. Due to its widespread use, the US has been polio-free since 1979, says @CDCgov.
— Seth Tupper (@SethTupper) February 7, 2020
If Rep. Qualm really found these radical hot-button bills unfortunate, he’d act like a Majority Leader and tell his caucus to knock off the monkeyshines and get back to work. But he lacks the authority to wield that power when he himself joins the circus with an anti-vaxxer bill.
Insaner than most. It is no wonder his caucuses are the least effective of all the GOP ones for the past 11 years.
Cory doesn’t “bury the lefse”. “Representative Lee Qualm is confused.”
“It’s unfortunate that it seems like the social issues just do grab a lot of air.” said House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, a Platte Republican. “It’s just the nature of the subject.”
There is no codified law saying wingnuts HAVE the right to legislate their idea of morality on any citizen. Your lament is self inflicted and easily avoided, tool.
I wonder if the SDGOP is practicing national GOP flatulence, er, governance, of throwing piles of unnecessary bills at the population to capture their attention, diverting them from the fact that the SDGOP offers nothing that actually makes their lives better.
Ms. Geelsdottir almost has it. Her limitations don’t quite capture the full plan. There are three, count ‘em three law bill out there they want to sneak home. All the rest are, as you libbies like to say, horses of stalking. Your job is to figure out which three are going to get shoved down your maw.
As an aside in reference to Seth Tupper’s twixt:
Not only did the vaccine eliminate polio, its developer, Dr Jonas Salk, refused any payment.
I remember putting my dimes in the card and later wondering what would become of THE MARCH OF DIMES.
Strange times we live in now, eh ??
grudz teaches that in Pierre, if it needs to get done, it will get done. If it doesn’t absolutely need to get done, it won’t get done. Grudzie. What do you see as needing to get done, this session?
Buck, I had forgotten about those cards. The March of Dimes, yes, to eliminate polio. Thanks for a blast from the past!
Killer, Seth. Thks
Hater, grdz. As always.
Outta the park buckobear!
Qualm was my rep back when I lived in Wagner ten years ago, and I’m dismayed that he’s still doing his inane damage in the legislature. I remember a cracker barrel in Wagner that hubby and I attended about eight or nine years ago. Qualm was promoting one of his nutty insane education bills (it may have been the one requiring school sentinels, without allocating funds and with his party typically giving no funds to education otherwise) and many area teachers were present.
At that time, I was a regular sub in the school district and, therefore, knew many of the teachers. Our next-door neighbor and good friend was also a teacher and was present. Qualm was arrogant, smug, dismissive, know-it-all. Truly disgusting and embarrassing that he was our rep. Sad that he hasn’t changed.