BALLOT INITIATIVES, AMENDMENTS & TAXES

The election is just two weeks from Tuesday. Finally! It seems like it’s been going on for years – and it has. Parliamentary systems seem to do it better, with entire campaigns sometimes over within two months.

 

Apart from the Presidential campaign, there are Senate and House seats at stake, and there’s a good chance the Democrats may gain substantial, workable majorities— perhaps even a filibuster-proof Senate. And there are important state and local issues as well.

 

This brings up one of my pet peeves. I really object to the over-use of ballot initiatives in California. I have voted in two other states, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. When I voted there, ballot initiatives were rare – maybe one or two every other election. In California, however, we are bombarded sometimes with more than a dozen state propositions and twenty local ones. It becomes a crap shoot. Most people don’t vote, and those who do frequently are uninformed or misinformed about the propositions. Look, we live in a democratic republic with representatives elected to make decisions for us. But frequently the hard decisions— the ones that officials lose elections over— are thrown back to the people, who sometimes vote against their own interests, because it’s so hard to figure out what the propositions mean. I’d be in favor of a new proposition – one that would make the threshold so high, that we would have only one or two each election, and then voters would be able to make reasonable and informed decisions.

 

Another skewed situation in California is that it takes a super majority to pass a budget – which really means that a determined minority can block progress and the will of the majority. Yet it takes merely a majority of one to change the Constitution. Isn’t that completely backwards?

 

In election 2008 there is State Proposition Eight. It asks to take away the right of gays and lesbians to marry.  Now I’m not a disinterested person because Dennis and I were married at City Hall in 2004, even though our ceremony was later declared invalid.  I still wear both of our wedding bands. He died before the State Supreme Court allowed marriages this year.

 

Apart from my personal interest, amendments in general to the state constitution should be extremely difficult to pass and be forced to meet rigorous requirements on a number of levels— as with federal amendments— particularly when you’re talking about minority rights. After all, the bill of rights in the U.S. Constitution was designed to protect the rights of minorities against the potential tyranny of the majority.

 

And this whole nonsense about “Joe the Plumber.” First of all, his name isn’t Joe and he’s not a registered plumber.  Then he currently would receive a tax decrease under Obama’s plan even though he objects to it—and he’s delinquent in his current taxes. Furthermore, he opposes social security in principle. If he had his way, social security would be eliminated altogether. Is that what you want? Do you really want to set him up as a model voter and citizen?

 

Republicans always seem to complain about taxes. (I know my grandfather did.) If you followed their theories to their logical conclusions, there would be no taxation …. and no services. We’d all (who weren’t homeless) end up living in walled compounds with broken glass on the walls. Dennis was fond of Oliver Wendell Holmes' comment:         “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.” So yes, Senator McCain and Governor Palin, paying taxes can be patriotic – particularly in a time of war.