June 17, 2009
The Color of Contempt
The good sense that California voters exhibited at the polls in May has been
rewarded with continual attack and derision.
Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO and Republican candidate for governor, recently
said, “In many ways, the proposition process has worn out its usefulness.”
She's criticizing the initiative, and she's not alone.
Wrong target. California's initiative process account for what little political
sanity exists in the state.
The problem is spendaholic politicians.
But politicians and pundits continue bashing California's ballot initiative
process. Anything to deflect attention away from the inability of politicians
to prioritize.
Even The Economist has taken up the bludgeon. A recent story, headlined “The
ungovernable state,” said of the voter initiative process:
At first, it made sense. . . . The state in 1910 had only 2.4 million
residents, and 95 percent of them were white. (Today it has about 37 million
residents, and less than half are white.) A small, homogenous and informed
electorate was to make sparing and disciplined use of the ballot to keep the
legislature honest, rather as in Switzerland.
Is The Economist actually suggesting that a multi-ethnic electorate is
incapable of democratic decision-making? I think we are witnessing the insider
class move from condescending disdain for the people to a full-blown case of
dementia.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and the Citizens in Charge
Foundation, which sponsors both Common Sense and Paul's weekly Townhall Column.
The opinions expressed in Common Sense are Paul Jacob's and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Citizens in Charge or the Citizens in Charge Foundation.
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