The Nightmare of Amendment 41

To roughly paraphrase Garrison Kiellor, the ballot initiative is a good thing - mostly. Last year we voted to approve Amendment 41, a vaguely-worded, broad measure to fight corruption in Government. Problem is it was so vaguely worded that children of lawmakers and civil servants are being denied scholarships because of it.

Well, we're stuck with it now. On another blog, I spoke out against it on other grounds: As the law was written, if my friend Matt Bryant had been elected to the State house, I couldn't have bought him a beer if that beer would have brought his annual gift total to over $50.00. If I'd have taken him to dinner, it would have to cost me less than $50.00. This extends to his family as well - had he brought his wife along, the tab couldn't have been more than $25.00 each.

Supporters argued the measure would fight corruption and it would have. The problem is that there was no problem, at least none worthy of a constitutional amendment to fight. The Blue Book specifically mentions the problem we're having, children of civil servants being unable to accept scholarships. C'est la vie, I suppose. Did no one read the book? Here's a kicker: A person with a political vendetta could demand an investigation of family members for their Christmas presents! Did you know you voted for that?

The ballot initiative is a powerful tool both for good and for ill. Our nation's founding fathers were opposed to it for the very reason illustrated by Amendment 41: Populism can lead to all sorts of bad law. Add to populism an uininformed electorate and you have a recipe for disaster. As politically active people, it is our responsibility to educate voters whenever possible to avoid disasters such as the very popular but completely wrong-headed Amendment 41.

They Don't Want To Talk About It

Today, Senate Republicans including our own Wayne Allard voted to fillibuster debate on the Iraq war. It's gone so badly, they don't want it debated in the Senate. Their tactic of trying to suppress public debate on the issue has failed - we will continue to debate Bush's Folly and we will continue to support the troops by trying to bring them home.

So how does this relate to HD40? We are a Democratic organization and the good Senator has indicated he will live by his word and not seek re-election in 2008. We will need to support the Democratic candidate - hopefully a full-fledged Democrat this time around. One way we can do so is to remind people continually that the Republicans are too embarassed to talk about their Great Experiment of bringing Democracy to the Middle East and all but two of them are on the record as opposing the debate.

We overwhelmingly rejected the War in Iraq in the last election. Republicans have apparently taken the short view of supporting their elite constituency over our views. That rejection of their electorate will cost them. It's our job to exact that price.