Funny place, California. On the one hand, we pass Proposition 8 -- removing the right of same sex couples to marry. It alters the state constitution -- the highest, most sacred law of the state, with a simple majority vote. Meanwhile, the state legislature can't raise taxes one cent without a two-thirds super majority because of the (in-)famous "Prop 13."
I hear people on both sides of both issues complaining about the "rule of the majority" or the "rights of the minority." What I don't hear so much of, is how completely screwed up the entire state political system is because of one entrenched problem: the initiative system is fundamentally broken.
Don't get me wrong: I'm a democrat through and through. Churchill said that "...democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried.." and that sounds about right to me. But let's not forget that there are many forms of democracy, from systems where everyone participates in every decision, to those that essentially elect an autocrat every few years.
I'm not a historian or political scientist, but it seems to me that we in California are essentially expressing our dislike for a current political problem like immature kids. We lash out, throw a tantrum, and make a "They're never going to do that ever again!" kind of rule.
A representative legislature separate from the executive is expressly designed to give reasonable consideration to laws (and constitutional changes). In California, since the Brown Act and the rise of Open Government we have good transparency into the formerly "smoke-filled rooms." I'll go so far as to say there is nothing we have accomplished via a California initiative that we could not have done through the legislative process in a similar amount of time. (And yes, I know there's no way to prove or disprove that).
As an added bonus, if we didn't have to vote for 15 different initiatives, judges, dog-catcher, and so on, our ballots might be simpler, easier to count, and maybe more people might vote.
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