Don't Vote To Limit Civil Rights

[Ian David]

Thursday, April 12, 2007


Flashing lights and Klaxons should go off when the shameless liars say, "Agree with me or you're unAmerican." Of course, that goes for the current White House's big lies on Iraq. Locally, our version has to do with ballot initiatives.

Here, we have been strongly against such abuses of ballot initiatives in this state and elsewhere. Over at his main blog and a column in IN Newsweekly, Ryan Adams called for the long overdue refinement of the amendment machine as well.

We have been bullied, harassed, tricked and robbed of our money and time that should go to worthwhile pursuits by those liars. Those lying in wait for citizens include VoteonMarriage, Ray Flynn, Catholic Citizenship, and even Cardinal O'Malley. They openly say that unless their evil hearted, fraud-ridden amendment to stop same-sex marriage here goes to a general election, voters have lost their democratic rights.
Emergency Brake
That's doo-doo many levels deep, and the core of the argument, as well as the way to solve it lie in our state constitution's Amendment XLVIII.

This amendment sometimes has a mythic quality. You hear that it came from our colonial times, that Massachusetts had this first, that the original authors of our state constitution inserted this, and blah blah. Reality is that shortly after the United States came into existence, a former colony did have a rudimentary form of initiatives, but that was Georgia. Then in the opening of the 20th Century, Oregon instituted a full-fledged version, which we and other states eventually adopted in similar form. Ours came toward the end of the Progressive Era in 1918.


Some confusion comes from the our Article XIX, which includes, "The people have a right...to request of the legislative body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer." That's quite different, but we could argue that it presaged initiatives.

Today 24 states and D.C. have a form of ballot initiative for either bills or constitutional amendments or both. We have both.

More:
http://massmarrier.blogspot.com/2007/04/dont-vote-to-limit-civil-rights.html