Ballot initiatives often put states ahead of the curve, politically. This year is no exception

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Power to the People
Ballot initiatives often put states ahead of the curve, politically. This year is no exception.

BY Theo Anderson


For both the Left and the Right, the tools of direct democracy can be hopeful as well as maddening elements of the American political system. Those tools—ballot initiatives, referendums and recall elections—were among the key reforms advocated by progressives a century ago. The idea was to put power directly in the hands of the people and offset the influence of corporate money in state legislatures. And direct democracy has indeed achieved progressive goals. In Oregon and Arizona, women gained the right to vote by way of ballot initiatives in 1912. More recent initiatives have been crucial in the push to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in several states.

But direct democracy is a double-edged sword. It has just as often served conservative ends as progressive causes. The peculiar character of the modern conservative movement, in fact, had its origins in California's Proposition 13, which voters approved in 1978. Prop 13 capped property-tax rates in the state at one percent while requiring a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the California State Assembly to raise taxes, thereby making it effectively impossible.

........(snip)........

Gay marriage

The governor of Washington signed a bill that legalized gay marriage in February, and Maryland’s governor did the same in March. Whether those laws will take effect is now up to voters. Referendums to repeal the legislation will be on the ballot in both states. In Maine, meanwhile, gay marriage will be on the ballot for the second time in three years. In 2009, Maine was in the same situation as Washington and Maryland now face. The legislature had passed a law that legalized gay marriage, and the governor had signed it. But voters approved a referendum that overturned the law. That vote was relatively close, 53 to 47 percent, and supporters of the new initiative are confident that they now have the votes to make gay marriage legal in Maine. Recent polling suggests that they’re right.

Labor rights

Michigan’s unions joined together to put an initiative on the ballot that would amend the state’s constitution to ensure collective bargaining rights for public and private employees. It’s called the Protect Our Jobs amendment, and it’s a direct response to the loss of collective bargaining rights by public-sector employees in neighboring Wisconsin, and to the “right-to-work” legislation that has passed in several other states. It’s also a preemptive response to the Republican-controlled legislature, which has passed laws that curb union strength in minor ways, but hasn’t yet attempted a Wisconsin-style full-frontal assault. It’s possible that a vote on the proposed amendment will be derailed or delayed if business interests, which are mobilizing against it, file a lawsuit to prevent it from appearing on the ballot. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13517/power_to_the_people

[qwlauren35]

1. The interesting part of the article

is about legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington. That's the one to watch.

[musiclawyer]

2. COL should win, WA might

If either one does, the drug war is over. POTUS can't undo. The drug cartels can't undo it. Not even the cops. Legalization ( of cannabis and hemp) on entire west coast within a decade.