My name is Will, Will of the people.

by liberal japonicus

When I lived in Eugene, Oregon, a city that is an outlier in a state that's an outlier, around election time, we'd get a phonebook like publication with all of the ballot amendments. Some were well-meaning, others totally wack and it was always a fun read back in the days when there was some sense to the world. It is something that was baked into the process back in 1902, and this wikipedia article has a list of all of them. The process also required that a statement be included on the effect on the budget. I can't remember the precise wording, but some had something to the effect that 'we have absolutely no idea how this will impact the budget" and I was always drawn to those for comedic value.

More recently, when I have thought of it, I just assumed that it was one of the early volleys in the current enshittification of US government. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this.

The Oregon Supreme Court said Thursday that 10 Republican state senators who staged a record-long walkout last year to stall bills on abortion, transgender health care and gun rights cannot run for reelection.

The decision upholds the secretary of state’s decision to disqualify the senators from the ballot under a voter-approved measure aimed at stopping such boycotts. Measure 113, passed by voters in 2022, amended the state constitution to bar lawmakers from reelection if they have more than 10 unexcused absences.

Cue Nelson Muntz. I'm still undecided as to the value to the whole process, but I'm happy in this instance. Still, it seems like brownian motion. An open thread for your thoughts on ballot amendments as well as all of the anecdotes from whereever you are. Or find the proposed amendment in the wikipedia article that catches your fancy and share it here.

 

Comments

[wonkie]

I'm happy to see that the R legislators sulked and pouted themselves out of a job.

[JanieM]

I saw the Oregon news yesterday and wrote this to a friend: "people who are only in government to break it shouldn't be allowed to be in government."

So --- good news in this case IMO.

Maine makes it fairly easy to get a measure on the ballot. (Maybe not as easy as in Oregon?) It's a mixed blessing, just as you would expect.

The vote I'm most proud of is when the people overturned a law the Rs had passed to eliminate same-day voter registration . The people said: "Get outta here."

Off to town, will try to get back to this later.

[wj]

Allowing people to put something on the ballot, without requiring the legislature to do anything, is a mixed blessing to be sure. But definitely a blessing nonetheless.

California routinely gets nutcase initiatives turning up. But we also get stuff that (effective!) lobbying had kept the legislature from addressing.

The biggest negative, to my mind, is how cumbersome a process is required to modify those that pass. Because oftentimes there is some tweaking required to make the new law actually work like it is supposed to. But the legislature isn't allowed to just pass a fix; it has to go to the voters again to be OKed. I completely understand why things are set up that way, but still....

[wonkie]

WA is subjected to annual oligarch-funded attacks on our tax base and efforts to undo any responsible and sensible legislation passed by the legislature. Big money goes into the campaigns to promote lies, lies, lies, and often the campaigns are successfully.

[JanieM]

@wonkie -- We've had two statewide votes over the past few years concerning electric power. Even if I hadn't known anything else about what was at stake, I would have known how to vote by picking the side that didn't have an ocean of $ to pour into advertisements.

They weren't spending all that money because they love the planet, or because they want my rates to go down. They were spending it to ensure the continuation of the flow of $ into their own pockets. One vote came out the way I would have wished, the other didn't.

[wonkie]

THis is sort of related to the topic of will. I think it is pretty obvious at this point that the will of the current Israeli regime is to make all of Gaza uninhabitable so the people will either die or leave and the land can then be occupied by non-Palestinians.

Hence the tactic of overkill. As a pretense of basic human decency, the population of the north was told to move south. Then the north was obliterated of all life support. Next step, tell the people in the south to move to one side, and obliterate the next section. Now that everyone is crowded into one corner, create the fantasy of legions of Hamas hiding there, and use "defense" as a justification for eliminating all life support in the last section of Gaza.

No food, no water, no shelter, no hospitals, no jobs, no sewer system, no schools, no life support, no hope. Just die and get the fuck out of the way of resettlement.