Tag: recall

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall links Second Amendment rights

Townhall: Plumber Wrench into the Gears of Gun Control

The First and Second Amendment are very good friends. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they’re close, one always protecting the other, as we witnessed again last week in Colorado. 

For more on the big Rocky Mountain State recall vote, click on over to Townhall​.com. And then come back here for a few more links.

Categories
initiative, referendum, and recall Second Amendment rights

A Voter Revolt

The signatures are in: 16,199 of them — twice as many as needed to initiate the first recall election of a state lawmaker in Colorado history.

The target of voter ire? Senate President John Morse. He ticked off his El Paso County constituents by spearheading the recent triple whammy of gun control legislation that neatly bypassed Colorado voters earlier this year.

You may remember the controversy. The three bills in question, signed by the governor as emergency legislation so that no voter referendum was possible, elicited widespread negative reactions in the state, including nearly every county sheriff in Colorado publicly opposing the bills.

So, why did the sheriffs oppose the legislation, while Democrats in the legislature passed the bills?

Like state legislators, sheriffs are elected. But, unlike legislators, sheriffs deal with self-​defending citizens qua citizens, as well as criminals and victims, on a regular basis. Such experience brings a different perspective, and makes sheriffs more skeptical of blunt legislative solutions.

Traditionally, Democrats — despite the fondness demonstrated by their party constituencies for increased government control over private weapons — tend to treat the issue of “gun control” with some modicum of care. At least, those in the mid-​west and western states tend to.

But Senator Morse did not.

Morse won the senate seat back in 2010 by fewer than 350 votes, with a Libertarian Party candidate racking up 1,320 votes — almost 5 percent. Libertarians are strongly pro-​Second Amendment. Yet, Morse treated his narrow victory as a call for sweeping change. A mandate!

He may reap the “reward” for such “courage.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Categories
Common Sense

Doing the Right Thing, Eventually

Give Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal credit for doing the right thing sooner rather than later.

Jindal acted faster than, say, former Governor Gray Davis of California. In 2003, Davis tripled California’s car tax, provoking widespread anger. Finally, Davis agreed it should be repealed … but only after voters were about to recall him. Voters weren’t mollified, and Davis was duly ousted.

In Louisiana, the scam didn’t touch taxpayers’ wallets so directly. As symbolism, though, it bit painfully enough. Out of the blue, legislators more than doubled their salaries. The hike would have taken effect in the same session. Governor Jindal had promised to veto any such pay raise. But he flip-​flopped. He claimed a veto would make it harder to work with lawmakers, harder to achieve necessary reforms.

Voters vociferously reminded the governor that lawmakers’ abuse of power is one of the things that needs reforming. Many demanded a recall. At first, Jindal stuck to his guns. Then he reversed his reversal and agreed to veto the pay hike. Many lawmakers also changed their minds about the raise.

The moral, I think, is that we citizens must remain engaged in public affairs even after the polls close. Otherwise, it’s too easy for even well-​intentioned leaders to succumb to politics as usual. Too often, we elect a decent soul and then just go about our own lives — as he enters the lion’s den alone.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.