Monday, May 25, 2009
The People Have Spoken
It's popular amongst the libertarian whiner crowd in Nevada to point to California and mention the fiscal mess that state is in, and to blame said mess on greed head California politicians, who in their entrenched positions of glory and power have decided to buy support by supplying the citizens of California with every possible "nanny state" endowment, and who now wish to pay for all that largess with heavy taxes. Whew.
It's true that California does a lot of things (on paper) that other states do not attempt. There are special programs for the poor displaced moss lost on the South side of a tree in the forest, or so it seems. But, the thing that the critics in Nevada are missing is that these special programs are all mandated, or nearly all at least, by citizen approved initiative-produced laws. That is, the citizens of the great state of California have, in their wisdom, insisted that California provide extra protection for blue-headed boobies on Alcatraz island (there aren't any, I'm making that example up) but have failed utterly to provide for any means of funding the effort. So when the legislature tries to raise taxes to balance the state budget, they are simply trying to comply with the laws enacted by the people of California in an open example of direct democracy called the initiative process.
Nevada has initiative, too. Special interest groups simply hire a bunch of otherwise apparently unemployable people to accost citizens outside of grocery stores and get them to sign a petition for whatever law the special interest group is trying to get passed. Perhaps the legislature, having as they do to come up with money to fund all these things, might decline to enact one or more laws that some group or other (and that's a "special interest" by definition, incidentally) wants to see enacted. Sending those petition gatherers out circumvents the reluctance of the legislature to "make government serve the people" by making laws without bothering the people elected to do just that. It's an example of democracy in action, and a tribute to the people of America.
Or, as I prefer to call it, it's pure bullshit.
California is in the mess it's in directly as a result of the initiative process. The state of Colorado was in a similar mess a few years back for the same reason. There, the people had mandated ever increasing spending on education, hamstrung the property tax collection process, and forbidden the legislature from doing anything about it, which resulted in the state being unable to function at all. The folks in Colorado suspended their mandates for five years to let the state get back on its feet. Better they should have ditched initiative all together.
The initiative process reflects the will of "the people." Groups that have done a lot of talking about the will of the people include the Bolsheviks, who in nineteen-seventeen overthrew an elected government in Russia because "the people" demanded it. Communists have always talked about the will of "the people," and in fact North Korea is known legally as "The People's Democratic Republic of Korea." Not sure what people that name is talking about, but that's the way it is: "The people" is an easily manipulated idiot. That's why the people who wrote the government of the United States made sure we had a republican form of government, not a democracy. Another guy who appealed very broadly to "the people" was Julius Caesar. You know, the guy who brought down the Republic of Rome? Brought down the republic by appealing to and delivering on the will of the people. Caesar knew where to turn to destroy a country. I imagine it would still work today.
Frankly, the only initiative I'm willing to sign would be one to forbid all future initiative efforts. Of course, to pass the law, you'd have to convince "the people" to agree that it's an idiot, which could be a tough sell. But I think we ought to try. We have nothing to lose, and sane government to gain.
There, the person has spoken!
Steve
It's true that California does a lot of things (on paper) that other states do not attempt. There are special programs for the poor displaced moss lost on the South side of a tree in the forest, or so it seems. But, the thing that the critics in Nevada are missing is that these special programs are all mandated, or nearly all at least, by citizen approved initiative-produced laws. That is, the citizens of the great state of California have, in their wisdom, insisted that California provide extra protection for blue-headed boobies on Alcatraz island (there aren't any, I'm making that example up) but have failed utterly to provide for any means of funding the effort. So when the legislature tries to raise taxes to balance the state budget, they are simply trying to comply with the laws enacted by the people of California in an open example of direct democracy called the initiative process.
Nevada has initiative, too. Special interest groups simply hire a bunch of otherwise apparently unemployable people to accost citizens outside of grocery stores and get them to sign a petition for whatever law the special interest group is trying to get passed. Perhaps the legislature, having as they do to come up with money to fund all these things, might decline to enact one or more laws that some group or other (and that's a "special interest" by definition, incidentally) wants to see enacted. Sending those petition gatherers out circumvents the reluctance of the legislature to "make government serve the people" by making laws without bothering the people elected to do just that. It's an example of democracy in action, and a tribute to the people of America.
Or, as I prefer to call it, it's pure bullshit.
California is in the mess it's in directly as a result of the initiative process. The state of Colorado was in a similar mess a few years back for the same reason. There, the people had mandated ever increasing spending on education, hamstrung the property tax collection process, and forbidden the legislature from doing anything about it, which resulted in the state being unable to function at all. The folks in Colorado suspended their mandates for five years to let the state get back on its feet. Better they should have ditched initiative all together.
The initiative process reflects the will of "the people." Groups that have done a lot of talking about the will of the people include the Bolsheviks, who in nineteen-seventeen overthrew an elected government in Russia because "the people" demanded it. Communists have always talked about the will of "the people," and in fact North Korea is known legally as "The People's Democratic Republic of Korea." Not sure what people that name is talking about, but that's the way it is: "The people" is an easily manipulated idiot. That's why the people who wrote the government of the United States made sure we had a republican form of government, not a democracy. Another guy who appealed very broadly to "the people" was Julius Caesar. You know, the guy who brought down the Republic of Rome? Brought down the republic by appealing to and delivering on the will of the people. Caesar knew where to turn to destroy a country. I imagine it would still work today.
Frankly, the only initiative I'm willing to sign would be one to forbid all future initiative efforts. Of course, to pass the law, you'd have to convince "the people" to agree that it's an idiot, which could be a tough sell. But I think we ought to try. We have nothing to lose, and sane government to gain.
There, the person has spoken!
Steve
Labels: Politics, Social Commentary
