Category: initiative, referendum, and recall

Photo by Gage Skidmore

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Shanghaied in Tallahassee

Post author By Editor
Post date April 1, 2021
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How to prevent citizen control of government?

The democracy-loathing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not merely wiping out Hong Kong’s civil liberties, but also aggressively undercutting the limited democratic input citizens previously had. You see, in December of 2019, in the last local elections before the pandemic proscribed the city’s protest movement, fledgling pro-democracy candidates won an incredible 87 percent of the seats.

So the Chinazis postponed the next election, just to be safe.*

Never a full-fledged one-person/one-vote democracy, Hongkongers only voted for 35 of the 70 Legislative Council seats. But now the CCP is increasing legislative seats to 90 while reducing to just 20 those that voters choose.**

While tyranny may seem another growth industry where China outpaces us, don’t count out our politicians just yet.

Last November, Florida voters decided four citizen initiatives, passing two and defeating two others — including one to make it tougher to pass constitutional amendments. Such “direct democracy” isn’t easy — almost 900,000 Sunshine State voters must sign. Then to pass, Florida amendments require a 60-percent vote.

Yet for the third consecutive session the unfriendly Florida Legislature, dominated by Republicans, wants to make it even more difficult for regular people to communicate, associate, organize and petition an amendment onto the ballot, bypassing the pols:

♦ House Joint Resolution 61 would hike that 60-percent supermajority for passage to 66.7‑percent. Should a measure that receives 66.5 percent of the vote lose?

♦ Senate Bill 1890 would outlaw contributions of greater than $3,000 to the petition phase of the campaign, which usually costs upwards of $5 million. It’s campaign finance “reform” specifically designed to silence citizens by blocking their ability to successfully place an issue before fellow voters.

“[I]t should not be an impossible process,” offered Trish Neely with the League of Women Voters …

… of Florida, that is. Not Hong Kong.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Not to mention the police arresting aspiring pro-democracy candidates.

** The police must now first approve all candidates as being sufficiently pro-China, as well.

Photo by Elizabeth Jenkins

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initiative, referendum, and recall national politics & policies term limits

Why Congress Can’t Read

Blind Leading the Blind, US Congress, politicians

They don’t read.

No one reads the legislation Congress passes, not the staffers and lobbyists who write “the packages” and congresspeople least of all, as again illustrated by the recent 5,593-page, $2.3 trillion pandemic-relief-plus-kitchen-sink bill just passed by Congress.

They haven’t for decades.

Nor do they care to.

James Bovard, expert reporter on the excesses of the modern individual-stomping state, says the new monster-bill “is another warning that know-nothing, no-fault legislating will be the death of our republic unless Americans can severely reduce Congress’s prerogative to meddle in their lives.”

Correct. Problem is, it’s Congress that must enact reform — on itself. Talk about a conflict of interest! That’s why the citizen initiative process has been so important at the state level. Without democratic checks — initiative, referendum, recall — at the federal level, what major reform is even possible?

All big, necessary reforms hit a roadblock on that issue alone.

That goes for limiting the page-length of bills or requiring legislation be posted online for days if not weeks before a vote.

Same for congressional term limits, which would de-insulate Congress from us.

And, just so, with the late columnist Bob Novak’s proposal of smaller districts, maybe increasing the number of U.S. representative to 2,000. (It wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything more if we cut their pay.) More politicians might be better than fewer by decreasing the power of individual politicians — diminishing marginal power, you might say.

We find ourselves in a trap. These ideas amount to ways to avoid the trap once we are out of it.

But it is getting out of the trap that’s the hard part.

Any ideas? Please advise. You can be sure your good ideas will be read — not by Congress, of course, but by those of us who want a way out.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Tags Congress, freedom, power, Term Limits for U.S. Congress

Wolves, Checks, Balances

“Propositions are a pure democracy,” Allen Thomas declares, “and a threat to the rights of our republic.”

Citizen-initiated ballot measures, he contends, “bypass the system.”

Thomas’s wrongheaded essay — completely outside any right-minded head — “A Proposition To End Ballot Propositions,” appeared on the website of KLZ 560 AM talk show host Kim Monson.

Thomas, an author and commentator in Colorado, refers to the electorate as “the mob” and offers the old standby wolves-and-sheep-voting analogy. “Our Republic works,” informs Mr. Thomas, “because we bypass a direct democracy and instead balance the power of legislation between the state legislature and the governorship. It is a system of checks and balances.”

Yet, he does not mention the most critical check on both citizen-initiated and legislative lawmaking: judicial review. We have courts that protect our rights against encroachment in law. In fact, in the real world, it seems the courts are far more demanding in reviewing initiatives for constitutional violations than the bills legislatures pass.

Mr. Thomas also ignores that so many reforms — term limits jump to mind — would be impossible if only politicians acted.

Worse still, is the defeatism. “Progressives … are much better at it,” he concedes, adding “We also cannot count on the Colorado populace to think more reasonably.”

So, Thomas wants to “abolish” citizen initiatives.

More hopeful is George Mason University Professor Ilya Somin. “Referendums are a promising tool for libertarian progress,” argues Somin at Reason, “one with a proven record of success.” No need for despair.

“Much can be done,” Somin adds, “to build on that record and extend it.”

He’s right: Don’t be discouraged; take the initiative!

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Seeing What’s There

“One can squint and see ballot measures as a kind of super-survey of the electorate, with much larger samples and actual stakes,” wrote Sasha Issenberg over the weekend in The Washington Post. “The results then can be interpreted as a pure representation of voter preferences on discrete issues, without the vexing overlay of partisan polarization, incumbency, candidate personalities, scandal or gaffes.”*

Which “can be seductive,” he warns in an essay entitled, “Ballot measures don’t tell us anything about what voters really want.”

Nothing?

Mr. Issenberg is willing to toss out these results because “ballot measure contests operate within a framework so different from elections for public office — with few financial limits”** and “lopsided spending.”

He cites Florida’s Amendment 2, pushing the state’s minimum-wage up to $15, where the yes-side spent nearly 10 times as much as the no-side. And California’s victorious Proposition 22, which he argues “declined to protect gig workers” even though that is exactly what it does, and where supporters also outspent opponents roughly ten to one.

Issenberg also points to marijuana-related issues passing while widely outspending opponents. “In New Jersey, where more than two-thirds of voters said yes to legalization,” he explains, “supporters spent 65 times more than the leading opposition committee …”

But that only amounts to proponents spending half-a-million, which doesn’t go very far in Jersey.

While Issenberg, the author, journalist, and UCLA political science teacher, acknowledges that “a higher minimum wage and marijuana legalization are broadly popular” and don’t require greater spending, he argues that lopsided “multiples” of spending, like in New Jersey, “are unimaginable in the world of people running for office.”

Really?

Just try. Numerous candidates for office run without any opposition at all or completely token competition. Take Illinois’s 4th congressional district, where incumbent Democrat Jesús Garcia outspent his Republican challenger by a margin of 704 to one — $593,219 to $843.

Look at the ballot measures decided weeks ago. Don’t squint; put your glasses on, if you need them. And unlike Issenberg, believe your eyes.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* Initiatives can suffer from the “personalities, scandal or gaffes” of their proponents. Still, there is clearly far less partisanship and no incumbent, per se.

** Actually, ballot measures have no limits at all. The federal courts have ruled that campaign contributions can corrupt candidates receiving them, but since ballot initiatives are written down in black-and-white and cannot be changed after the election, financial contributions cannot corrupt a ballot measure.

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Voting in Black & White

In a nation divided over color — red for Republicans and blue for Democrats — voters united around the country to pass and defeat measures at the ballot box. No grayness in the results, as in the presidential election. The returns are black-or-white.

Before the election, I highlighted Citizens in Charge’s fight against measures designed to wreck the citizen initiative process in Arkansas (Issue 3), Florida (Amendment 4) and North Dakota (Measure 2). I’m glad to report voters slapped back all three.

Last week, I celebrated the defeat of California’s Prop 16, which sought to re-establish racial preferences, and the passage of a myriad of state measures related to ending drug prohibition, including Oregon voters legalizing psychedelic mushrooms and decriminalizing harder drugs … as well as conservative Montanans and South Dakotans allowing recreational marijuana use.

A whopping 89 percent of Michigan voters passed Proposal 2: “A proposed constitutional amendment to require a search warrant in order to access a person’s electronic data or electronic communications.”

Illinoisans turned down a constitutional amendment giving “the State authority to impose higher income tax rates on higher income levels, which is how the federal government and a majority of other states do it.” Apparently, voters weren’t impressed by that ballot language pitch … or by the who’s who of politicians, public employee unions and special interests promoting it.*

California voters defeated Proposition 21, 60 – 40, an attempt to expand rent control, and by nearly that margin approved Prop 22, providing Uber and Lyft a Get-Out-of-Regulatory-Hell card.

Not every electorate was wise. Thanks to Proposition 208, Arizona will “impose a 3.5% tax surcharge on taxable annual income over $250,000 for single persons or … $500,000 for married persons filing jointly … to increase funding for public education.”

In other news, Mississippians voted themselves a new flag, and Rhode Island changed its name to “Rhode Island” — jettisoning the “and Providence Plantations” that has always been part of its official name. Back in 2010, 78 percent of citizens gave a firm NO; this time, Question 1 passed by 53 – 47 percent.

This is Americans showing our true colors.

And usually Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

* A short list courtesy of Ballotpedia includes: Governor J.B. Pritzker (D), who donated $54 million to the effort, State Senator Christopher Belt (D), State Senator Don Harmon (D), Speaker of the House Michael Madigan (D), State Representative Robert Martwick (D), Democratic Party of Illinois, AFSCME Illinois Council No. 31, American Federation of Teachers, Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois, Chicago Federation of Labor, Chicago Teachers Union, Illinois AFL-CIO, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, SEIU Healthcare Illinois, SEIU Illinois State Council, AARP, Chicago Jobs Council, Democracy for America, Equality Illinois, Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans, Illinois Economic Policy Institute, Indivisible Chicago Alliance, Indivisible Illinois, Latino Policy Forum, League of Women Voters of Illinois, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, Sierra Club Illinois and Think Big Illinois.

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