Hasta la vista, baby
The Governator got his steroid-inflated backside spanked last night, as California voters — including your Uncle Swan — just said nein to Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election propositions.
I not only voted against the four propositions directly supported by the Governor, but the other four statewide ballot measures also. Partly because I thought all of them were bad ideas, and partly because I think the entire initiative process in California is one of the stupidest possible ways of making new law.
Look, absolute democracy is a wonderful concept in theory. Let the people decide! say the initiative proponents.
That would be great, assuming the people understood what they were doing.
But they don't.
It's one thing to ask the general public to choose between Candidate A and Candidate B. Most people are capable of holding the two cheek by jowl and saying, "Yeah, I like this guy (or gal)" and "No, I don't like this guy (or gal)." And make no mistake, that is exactly how most voters make their decisions come election time. Do the majority of people select a candidate because they agree with that individual's approach to the issues of the day? No. In the main, voters don't have a clue what the candidates' positions on the various issues are. Instead, they make a gut-check emotional call: Like her, don't like him.
We might as well determine the outcome of elections by means of rho-sham-bo.
The initiative process is fatally flawed, because it assumes — falsely — that the American public will actually do their homework before stepping into the ballot box. Yeah, right. This is the same populace that makes hits out of trash TV shows like Fear Factor and Desperate Housewives and celebrities out of vapid losers like Paris Hilton. That collective is going to sit down and read, then intellectually analyze, the minutiae of public policy, and make a credible value judgment? Would you be interested in some oceanfront property with a view of Mount Rushmore?
Heck, even I'm not willing to work that hard, and I'm both reasonably intelligent and marginally interested in the political process. Should I expect Joe Lunchbucket sitting in front of the boob tube with a remote in one hand and a forty-ounce malt liquor in the other to be more diligent than I am? Perish the thought.
That's why we hire representatives. I don't want to do their job for them, and perhaps more to the point, I shouldn't have to. I wouldn't be good at it. Politicians get elected to make law. If they do the job poorly, let's fire them and get some fresh blood in there. But as long as they're there, let's not waste effort trying to micromanage a system we don't fully comprehend.
No one can be everything. I'm a writer. If I need a mechanic, or a plumber, or an attorney, I'll find someone who's an expert in that field of endeavor and hire them. The same is true of politicians. If my assemblyperson and state senator make decisions I think are errant, I'll vote for someone else next time. Otherwise, I expect them to do the work my tax dollars pay them to do.
The initative process demands that I do the legislature's job for them. If I wanted to make public policy, I'd have become an actor.
I not only voted against the four propositions directly supported by the Governor, but the other four statewide ballot measures also. Partly because I thought all of them were bad ideas, and partly because I think the entire initiative process in California is one of the stupidest possible ways of making new law.
Look, absolute democracy is a wonderful concept in theory. Let the people decide! say the initiative proponents.
That would be great, assuming the people understood what they were doing.
But they don't.
It's one thing to ask the general public to choose between Candidate A and Candidate B. Most people are capable of holding the two cheek by jowl and saying, "Yeah, I like this guy (or gal)" and "No, I don't like this guy (or gal)." And make no mistake, that is exactly how most voters make their decisions come election time. Do the majority of people select a candidate because they agree with that individual's approach to the issues of the day? No. In the main, voters don't have a clue what the candidates' positions on the various issues are. Instead, they make a gut-check emotional call: Like her, don't like him.
We might as well determine the outcome of elections by means of rho-sham-bo.
The initiative process is fatally flawed, because it assumes — falsely — that the American public will actually do their homework before stepping into the ballot box. Yeah, right. This is the same populace that makes hits out of trash TV shows like Fear Factor and Desperate Housewives and celebrities out of vapid losers like Paris Hilton. That collective is going to sit down and read, then intellectually analyze, the minutiae of public policy, and make a credible value judgment? Would you be interested in some oceanfront property with a view of Mount Rushmore?
Heck, even I'm not willing to work that hard, and I'm both reasonably intelligent and marginally interested in the political process. Should I expect Joe Lunchbucket sitting in front of the boob tube with a remote in one hand and a forty-ounce malt liquor in the other to be more diligent than I am? Perish the thought.
That's why we hire representatives. I don't want to do their job for them, and perhaps more to the point, I shouldn't have to. I wouldn't be good at it. Politicians get elected to make law. If they do the job poorly, let's fire them and get some fresh blood in there. But as long as they're there, let's not waste effort trying to micromanage a system we don't fully comprehend.
No one can be everything. I'm a writer. If I need a mechanic, or a plumber, or an attorney, I'll find someone who's an expert in that field of endeavor and hire them. The same is true of politicians. If my assemblyperson and state senator make decisions I think are errant, I'll vote for someone else next time. Otherwise, I expect them to do the work my tax dollars pay them to do.
The initative process demands that I do the legislature's job for them. If I wanted to make public policy, I'd have become an actor.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 8:03 AM
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