I've been traveling and have some travel in my future, and what with prepping for travel and recovering from it, I haven't had much time to post.
I've been thinking about the little dust-up we had that started with Dan Popkey saying he was paying too much attention to the wingers. I then "took a shot" at Adam, according to Kevin Richert, and Adam responded, sort of accusing me of being a cranky old man who's telling him to get off my lawn. And misconstruing my point.
But anyway, since I asserted the Adam and Bryan Fischer are to the right of mainstream Idaho, I'm trying to find examples of the Idaho mainstream. Dennis Mansfield seems to be moving more toward the middle, though his strict views on abortion aren't mainstream.
Back in, '90 or '92, the Idaho legislature passed some strict abortion law. I don't have the specifics at hand. Anyway, the next election saw Idaho Democrats get half of the Senate seats. My conclusion; Idaho's mainstream isn't wild about highly restrictive abortion laws.
So, if you have any suggestions about other mainstream bloggers, please let me know. Perhaps if we can point Richert to additional sources for his "Other Voices" we might hear less from Adam and Bryan.
7 comments:
Alan, I think what you are referring to is House Bill 625. The legislature passed it, Andrus vetoed it, and Stallings sided with Andrus. Turned into quite the campaign issue for Stallings.
The bill would have been passed by the legislature before adjourning in the late winter/early spring of 1990. Was a campaign issue in 1990, not a major one, but it came up.
Richert only has to turn to his own paper which features local religious columns, on Saturday I believe, to find moderate voices from people of faith. Columns from Rabbi Fink and Pastor Tri Robinson are commonly buried in the back pages of the the Statesman life section and are rarely featured on the front page.
He also could go mainstream and ask the Most Rev. Michael P. Driscoll, M.S.W., D.D , head of the largest Christian group in Idaho, the Catholics.
I know these links aren't blogs but they are links to mainstream voices in the realm of faith that are being overlooked by the Statesman's rush to print sensationalism instead providing balanced coverage.
Thanks, Tara. I recall that reaction to the bill was pretty swift. I think a reason that Dems got so many seats in the next election was because some good candidates stepped up, motivated by their outrage.
Eric, I agree with you about those other voices. It seems the Statesman is looking for on line voices, as part of an effort to accomodate the paper to the changes driven by the internet.
I'm still listed under "Red Idaho Links" on your blogroll. Maybe he should pick me.
BH: Good point. I'll promote that. You're going to have to offer more opinion re: Idaho politics though.
I know that the examples I posted weren't blogs, but these people represent some of the diversity in religion that the Statesman publishes columns from and stories on regularly. Maybe Richert should invite them to blog on the Statesman's web site like they did with state representatives while the legislature was in session. Boy, that was a wake up to some of the wingnuts that agreed to it.
I also think Richert should avoid quoting anything from Fischer's web site since he doesn't allow comments. I don't consider that a blog so much as a monologue.
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