This is a huge win for rural people, open source, and ag-tech. Hats off to Colorado for understanding what's at stake and the brass to fix it.
This moment in history is momentous imo. Not only did rural people, ag-tech, and open source ethos prevail, but it was Democrats that did it - not Republicans. Paying lip service to those things is now measurably not enough. That symbolizes both a change in historic Democratic attitudes, but also shows there are inroads to places where Republicans have, at least in peoples minds, ruled with an iron fist.
Pop a top on a beer, pack away your culture war and divisional rhetoric, and appreciate the fact that today sensibility prevailed above all else.
This is true. I don't think there's any arguing that; often city policies including things like limitless expansion have harmed rural life. Rhetoric from constituents often paints rural people living a "lifestyle", which is largely a marginal amount of people. Most people live out there because that's what they can afford. Policies that are statewide that make sense for cities often don't make sense for folks in rural areas.
> We say it will help them but then why aren't lobbying their representatives to vote for this bill.
I'm guessing you haven't spent time immersed in any of these issues. I am a Democrat and spent some time living in a rural area. Often Republicans pay lip service to rural people, veterans, first responders, etc but don't do anything other than serve their own (the representatives) needs and desires. I have no mercy for Republicans as a party, but I have empathy for the people they claim, and fail, to represent. This is not a complex paradigm.
Now, combine my previous paragraph with this paradigm to understand the full scope of their choices in voting:
- Democrats have been outright hostile to them. Hillary Clinton walked into a coal mining town, told them she was going to take their jobs, and that they were going to become coders. When concerns were voice they were trolled and turned into a meme. This is just one example of the outright contempt some Democrats have shown in the past.
- Republicans on the other hand at least speak in a friendly tone to them, but hardly do anything. At times, they also harm them in their pursuit of self-gratification.
Now put yourself in the shoes of someone that's a voter: Do you vote for the person that speaks and acts with contempt for you or do you vote for the person that speaks nicely and at times acts with contempt? That's why this whole thing is big to me. Democrats finally grabbed a thing that's stupidly important to rural folks and ran it to the highest extent they could. This won't undo generations of harm, but it will start a conversation, and with any luck will get some folks to flip their voting. I say this from the perspective that Democrats used to care about rural people, businesses, etc. Hell, Democrats were even the ones that stood up the VA (and subsequently abandoned fighting to maintain it).
> Hardly. This never should have been necessary to begin with. It's pathetic that it took so long to reverse.
Are you kidding me? We have been lambasting corrupt politicians who are too greedy to stand against lobbyists and wishing for the right to repair for years and now that it's happened, all you can say is "no big deal, this isn't a win, harrumph harrumph?" Bollocks to you, good sir.
Of course it should have been a given in the first place! However, while I can't speak for you, I myself live in an imperfect world where we must do the best we can with what we have. So if, for a change, elected officials act in the best interests of their constituents to overturn something that you and I both readily agree is a disgusting perversion of the law, YES it's a win, and GOOD FOR THEM. Shame on you.
Congratulations to Colorado citizens for enshrining those rights into law. I hope this paves the way to enshrining general computing freedom into law as well.