California Conservative

This is my first post to this great blog, and I’m probably going to do something unmentionable in the punch bowl… I’m going to say what I think about the initiative process, and I am not a fan.

This will likely be written over several posts as the subject is so large. I’ll keep this first post rather general. I want to say what my major problems are with initiatives.

First and foremost, initiatives abrogate the power of the legislative branch. We are supposed to be a REPRESENTATIVE (republican) form of government. That’s what we send those folks to Sacramento to do, for better or for worse. The idea is that if they do not do what we want, we turn them out in the next election. But what happens in California is that instead of working the process as it was set up, we do end runs .

Also, again with regard to the legislature, we lock the government in to spending money through these initiatives, like the stem cell research which passed in the last election. Does ANYONE have any idea as to the percentage of the general fund that has been committed in this way? It is one heck of a way to run a business. Be the initiatives a good idea, like the stem cell idea probably was, it is just no way to run the government.

Finally, there is the matter of recalls, which are just another initiative. I was no fan of Governor Davis. however, he was turned out almost exactly a year after the people spoke and re-elected him. The people of California got a “do-over,” a Mulligan. the election became meaningless when in fact the people of this state should have had to live wit the lousy decision they made. Kids get do-overs, not adults.

We are coming into another season of initiatives, this time provoked by an irresponsible legislature. But then again, why should they be responsible when they have the perfect out? They can be just as irresponsible as they want because the people and not them are the ones accountable.

More to be said to be sure. Perhaps a debate will emerge here.

– by contributing blogger, Monterey John

Editor’s Note: This is actually John’s second post.
See his first great essay here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 at 11:25 am and is filed under Author: John Wilson, California, Elections, Law, Sacramento. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.