Rep. Rev. Steve Hickey (R-9/Sioux Falls) is having all sorts of fun shaking up conservative Republican sensibilities this week. First he declares his conversion to opposing the death penalty. Now he calls for state inspection of carnival rides:
"What's going on over my shoulder is bingo and the state has a regulation on that and just behind you are hot dogs being sold and the department of health sticks a needle in those and checks the temperature, and I think the public assumes somebody is overseeing these rides too," Hickey said.
This spring, a ride malfunction in Sisseton left two teenagers stranded, suspended in mid-air for nearly 90 minutes. KSFY News investigated carnival ride safety laws, approached Hickey for his reaction and now he's ready to take action and draft a bill.
"I think that there's some interest after what happened in Sisseston for some other legislators and myself to put forward a bill that will be similar to what's going on in other states, just to make sure there's annual inspections, in addition to our insurance requirement," Hickey said [Mark Roper, "South Dakota Carnival Rides Go Unregulated," KSFY, 2013.06.27].
Rep. Hickey's call for increased regulation, like his call to end South Dakota's death penalty, draws the predictable right-wingnut accusations of betrayal and socialism. But the good Republican offers this apt response to anyone who cries "Nanny State!":
If we all are responsible unto ourselves and there is no collective accountability or oversight, let’s deregulate everything. Parents can then be responsible themselves to walk around and inspect planes before they board with their kids. No need for govt to get involved there. I travel a lot and see what that looks like in other parts of the world. Not pretty. My close friend lost his sister last year to a preventable plane crash in Nigeria because an unscrupulous third world airline enabled by bribable government let a plane fly that should have never taken off. I can assure you, even the food in some of these unregulated places will send you to the men’s rooms or worse… even though the restaurant you bought it in looks nice. Some regulations are reasonable. Obviously I’m not a libertarian.
And furthermore, the Book I teach from every week is full of laws for healthy societies. Some view laws as bad and they can be, but that doesn’t mean they are all bad. I view many of them like the glass on a fish tank – they seem restrictive but if you remove them the fish are soon shriveled up dead and stuck to the carpet. If you disagree with that then I don’t know, you are probably a libertarian and just as much a RINO as the left leaners in our party [Steve Hickey, comment, Dakota War College, 2013.06.28].
That's a brilliant defense of community and government: our lives would suck if we each had to conduct our own airplane inspections. We can do some things more effectively working together through government than we can individually. Note that last line, where Hickey includes some good Republican disdain for us lefties. He's no Democrat, but he's carving out an interesting Christian centrism that poses challenges both for bloggers who want easy categories and the radicals who want to polarize his party.
While he is writing the legislation, I propose he puts a provision in there that also requires carnival owners to provide dental coverage for their employees. If you are gonna dream, I say dream big!
I bet this works about as well as house and nursing home inspections.
It will be amended to allow self inspections, pass and be signed into law by Governor Daugaard.
How can any citizen expect to obey the hundreds of new laws enacted every year?
Every year legislators in SD enter 500+ bills for consideration, most of them completely unnecessary. The most effective lawmaker is the one NOT clogging the system with laws we don't need.
Yes, there is a need for some regulation.
Of course, if we're going to inspect carnivals, we'll have to assign someone to inspect the Legislature.