631: Back-to-school tax, Trump's Fedorchak endorsement, and cheerleader culture wars

Should the voters take their case for covering school lunches for all students to the ballot box with an initiated measure?

We discussed the issue on this episode of Plain Talk, and co-host Chad Oban made the case for some populism on this issue. "The legislature has had ample opportunity to pass something that over 70% of North Dakotans support," he said, referring to a North Dakota News Cooperative poll from this spring.

"What if school districts start charging parents for books, right? Parents across the state would be up in arms if school districts started charging for books," he continued. "To me, it's a no-brainer today. It was a no-brainer yesterday. It was a no-brainer a year ago."

President Donald Trump's early endorsement of Rep. Julie Fedorchak's re-election, which hadn't even been officially announced yet, raised some eyebrows. What drove it? It might have something to do with divisive ."I didn't perceive Julie Fedorchak needing Trump to intervene and try to head off a primary challenge," I argued, but it could be about the North Dakota Republican Party, the leadership of which is now in control of a populist faction that doesn't like traditional Republicans very much.

That faction has already censured Gov. Kelly Armstrong twice, and at last cycle's state convention, they had enough clout to deny Fedorchak the endorsement, though she went on to win the primary and the general handily. Trump's early endorsement may have been to "warn off the state party," I contend.

North Dakotan Blaize Shiek is a cheerleader for the Minnesota Vikings this year, and not everyone likes it. "This isn't about male cheerleaders. This is about a certain type of male cheerleaders. Ones that are very good dancers and not just holding up the pretty girls," Oban said of the critics.

"I don't like it when people take it upon themselves to be gatekeepers and to say we're going to gatekeep football or we're going to gatekeep culture and we're going to say you can only do it our way only the way that we want it," I added. "Being weird in all the different wonderful ways we can be weird is not un-American. That's the most American damn thing in the world. What's un-American is you saying there's only one way to be an American."

We also discussed North Dakota Health and Human Services Commissioner Pat Traynor's alarmist comments about cell phones, and state Rep. Emily O'Brien's decision to step down and take a job as deputy commissioner in that same department.

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