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In Defense of Initiatives

Posted By | May 22, 2008




Here's how Evan Ravitz responded to Patrick's proposal of an initiative to end all initiatives:

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater! Voters on initiatives need what legislators get: public hearings, expert testimony, amendments, reports, etc. ALL proposals for this and other reforms have been ignored by the legislature, which, like you, want to eliminate initiatives -so they have absolute legislative power, the monopoly which initiatives broke.

Even with the problems, initiatives are the origin of everything from women's suffrage (passed by 13 states before Congress went along) to Clean Elections (passed by initiative in 6 of 7 states with them), medical marijuana (in 8 of 13 states with it) and increases in minimum wage (6 for 6 in 2006).

You've chosen a VERY poor analogy: as we know by now, "war to end all war" is actually the military-industrial complex's formula for perpetual war.



 


Josh Goodman
Josh Goodman

Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..

E-mail: mailbox@governing.com
Twitter: @governing

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