Those poor, poor politicians, they get awfully tired. Dodging the tough issues can wear a body out. And having to pretend to serve the people while pursuing the perks and privileges of a power, well . . . sometimes it gets to be too much.
So the politicians in Oregon decided to do something about it to tell the pesky citizens to pay their taxes and then “Butt out!” Legislators filed 50 different bills that would in one way or another destroy the citizen initiative process in the state. After all, it was by citizen initiative that the people passed term limits. The politicians would never have done so.
Virtually every other reform you can imagine has only one good chance to become law. Through the legislature? Ha, not on your life. Only through voter initiative can citizens break up the monopoly politicians have created for themselves. The Oregon Legislature placed a measure on this May’s ballot to increase by a whopping 50 percent the petition signatures required to place a voter-sponsored initiative on the ballot. The supporters of the legislature’s measure admit it will give an advantage to wealthier groups. Even so, a retired state judge said, “It is not a solution, but it would give us a breather.”
A breather? Yes, they want a breather from democracy, so they can better plot removing the people from future decisions. Oh, we’re always happy to give the career politicians a breather. How about term limits?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.