Sacred Cows Have Followers: A Lesson for Conservatives

As things stnad now, JFAC won’t get defunded based on what’s coming out of JFAC from Republicans:

Lawmakers on the joint budget committee said they’ve been deluged with calls and emails asking them not to cut out state funding for Idaho Public Television. “Nobody wants us to eliminate funding for public television,” said Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said her constituents have been asking her “not to cut it – to find someplace else to cut.” Said Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, “The only emails I’m getting from my constituents are in support of public TV.”

Sen. Bert Brackett, R-Rogerson, said, “There’s a lot of support out there, but we have to weigh it against the other needs and wants of the state.”

Now, I’d urge opponents of taxpayer funding of Public Television to contact JFAC, if they’ve got a State Senator on the committee, but it looks like IPTV will continue to be funded, even if the State doesn’t have the money.

Is it because nobody wants us to eliminate funding for public televisions as Senator Broadsword insisted. No. Rather, it’s those who want us to keep spending money on the proverbial “buggy whip” of the digital age are much louder.

Tthe base instinct of the politician is to keep as many people not angry at them as possible. So the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  If they get a lot of phone calls telling them that we need state subsidies of IPTV, they’re going to keep spending money on IPTV.

It doesn’t matter that IPTV would have time to transition. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the proper role of government to do IPTV. It doesn ‘t matter if IPTV is mostly an obselete relic of the three station TV era. What matters is that its supporters want it and most opponents aren’t there.

IPTV may be a sacred cow, but all sacred cows have followers, and if conservatives want to take this or other cows out, they need to have some strength to go with their arguments or lawmakers will ignore them.