"Democracy by chaos"
I have a friend who wanted to protest the volume of lame initiatives that are on the Colorado ballot every year. To make his point, he started an initiative to put a strip club in Governor Owens' office. Last I checked, he had about half the signatures he needed.
Not everybody shares my friend's sentiment. The Rocky Mountain News reports that next year, voters will decide whether to ease the process of getting an initiative on the ballot. Among other things, the amendment would restrict government resources from being used to fight or support a measure. And it would allow petition organizers to describe their initiative in their own words in any government-distributed ballot information booklet.
The amendment was written by the Independence Institute and the charming folks who brought you TABOR. On the other side, the Rocky quotes Republican State Sen. Norma Anderson as saying, "What they're doing is getting rid of representative government, which is what our forefathers wanted... It's absolutely ridiculous, and it destroys democracy. It's democracy by chaos." Liberal and Democratic voices are nowhere to be heard.
Only 24 states currently allow citizen ballot measures. Colorado is already one of the most active, along with California, Oregon and Arizona. But it looks like Colorado is less comfortable with representative government than ever.
Not everybody shares my friend's sentiment. The Rocky Mountain News reports that next year, voters will decide whether to ease the process of getting an initiative on the ballot. Among other things, the amendment would restrict government resources from being used to fight or support a measure. And it would allow petition organizers to describe their initiative in their own words in any government-distributed ballot information booklet.
The amendment was written by the Independence Institute and the charming folks who brought you TABOR. On the other side, the Rocky quotes Republican State Sen. Norma Anderson as saying, "What they're doing is getting rid of representative government, which is what our forefathers wanted... It's absolutely ridiculous, and it destroys democracy. It's democracy by chaos." Liberal and Democratic voices are nowhere to be heard.
Only 24 states currently allow citizen ballot measures. Colorado is already one of the most active, along with California, Oregon and Arizona. But it looks like Colorado is less comfortable with representative government than ever.
1 Comments:
This is one liberal who has always though that the growing prominence of intiatitives is in direct proportion to the growing cowardice of our representatives. They don't want to be stuck with the tough decisions. It lets them off the hook, while creating a hodgepodge of interlocking unintended consequences. Leaving these decisions for the public to decide, usually on an uninformed emotional basis, is a very bad idea, especially where constitutional amendments are concerned. We are supposed to be electing and paying our reps to study complicated issues and create legislation, based on their studies and experience, on our behalf. If we don't like the results we are supposed to vote them out. At the very least constitutional amendments on ballots should require a super majority, say two thirds , as in the federal system. Being able to add amendments easily, while getting rid of them if they have negative results remains very difficult, makes no sense.
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