Since Bluestem remembered that Guy who ruled Daudt's mute button was in order now opposes restrictions on who can talk, the Minnesota House's mute button has been put on the endangered tech list, with Speaker-elect Melissa Hortman promising to eliminate the button.
That decision is earning praise in Minnesota's media, including Listening vs. muting, an editorial in southwest Minnesota's Marshall Independent, a Gatehouse Media paper. The editors write:
Mute buttons are handy when watching TV and another annoying commercial comes on, usually at twice the volume of the regular programming. They proved invaluable during the past political campaign season to silence the onslaught of negative ads.
But as much as mute buttons have a place in the family TV room, they don’t belong in the Legislature. In the past couple of legislative sessions, the Republican House Speaker has had the ability to turn off the microphones on the floor with the push of a button. It was used to shut off acrimonious debate, especially in the closing hours of the session.
The new DFL House Speaker, Melissa Hortman, says she’s getting rid of the mute button. “It’s just a total violation of the culture of the Minnesota House of Representatives,” she told the Associated Press last week. “But more fundamentally it hits at the fundamental principles of democratic government.”
Indeed, the purpose of a legislative body is to conduct debate, to foster discussion and deliberation of differences and to seek solutions. It’s hard to find solutions when one side refuses to listen to the other, when the debate is muted and the microphones are turned off.
The best way to avoid acrimonious debate in the House is for legislators to listen, and listen respectfully, to each other. Legislators may be a little out of practice at this, but without a mute button to hide behind they may learn.
Hortman gained nationwide attention in April 2017 when she called for "the 100 percent white male card game in the retiring room" to listen to their women companions speaking on the House floor. Later that month, MinnPost reported Melissa Hortman still isn’t sorry.
Not only is Hortman still not sorry months later, she's the Speaker-elect and it sounds as if she still wants "legislators to listen, and listen respectfully, to each other."
Of course that mute button's on its way out.
Photo: Speaker-elect Melissa Hortman.
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