Democracy Makes a Comeback

Just when big government boosters in the Evergreen State thought it was safe to raise taxes, Tim Eyman and the group Voters Want More Choices have returned to the streets with Initiative 1366.

I-1366 is identical to Initiative 1325, a measure Mr. Eyman failed to get onto the 2014 ballot. That flop came after the ballot initiative guru’s biggest benefactor had passed away. And not long after the Washington Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional his previous initiative requiring a two-thirds vote of the legislature or a vote of the people to raise taxes.

Though, the people of Washington had voted three times by increasing margins — in 2007, 2010 and 2012 — on ballot measures to require a two-thirds legislative vote to increase taxes, the legislature refused to abide by the votes of the people (yeah, the same people they supposedly “serve”).

Then, his third measure passed in 2012 was overturned by the state’s highest court, which declared that the two-thirds threshold could only be established via a constitutional amendment and only the legislature could propose a constitutional amendment.

Washington state’s initiative process has only statutory power; citizens cannot propose constitutional amendments to the voters.

Opponents were ecstatic, celebrating Eyman’s perceived obsolescence. Seattle PI columnist Joel Connolly wrote a year ago that, “the promoter may finally have exhausted his 15 years of fame.”

Eyman was down and out, no longer to be the effective thorn in the blue state’s progressive politburo. What could he do?

Well, it’s now a year later — just weeks before the deadline to turn in petition signatures to put issues on this November’s ballot — and it appears Eyman’s latest initiative will easily qualify.

Not to mention that his detractors are back to hilarious and hyperbolic hyperventilating. At the Seattlish blog, we’re informed that “Tim Eyman is a bad man. He belongs in a trash bin. . . . He belongs on your All Time Perpetual Never-Changing [*%#@!] List.”

One comment reads, “I hate to say things like this, but I really mean it. I want Tim Eyman to die in a f---ing fire.”

The Northwest Progressive calls I-1366 a “destructive, hostage-taking initiative.” The Spokane Spokesman Review dubbed the measure “blackmail.”

As the official ballot title reads: “This measure would decrease the sales tax rate unless the legislature refers to voters a constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds legislative approval or voter approval to raise taxes, and legislative approval for fee increases.”

You see, the people cannot set a two-thirds vote mandate on the legislature — so says the court. But the people can cut the sales tax. And that’s what I-1366 does — cut the sales tax by a penny . . . unless legislators do the right thing and give the people a vote on a constitutional amendment to establish the two-thirds legislative vote or a vote of the people to raise taxes.

Call it what you will, but it’s not a crime for the good people of Washington State to have a government according to their will, rather than the will of politicians.

If politicians listened to voters, Tim Eyman and the initiative process wouldn’t be so desperately needed.

http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/democracy.html

“Democratic” in its original meaning [refers to] unlimited majority rule . . . a social system in which one’s work, one’s property, one’s mind, and one’s life are at the mercy of any gang that may muster the vote of a majority at any moment for any purpose.

If we discard morality and substitute for it the Collectivist doctrine of unlimited majority rule, if we accept the idea that a majority may do anything it pleases, and that anything done by a majority is right because it’s done by a majority (this being the only standard of right and wrong)—how are men to apply this in practice to their actual lives? Who is the majority? In relation to each particular man, all other men are potential members of that majority which may destroy him at its pleasure at any moment. Then each man and all men become enemies; each has to fear and suspect all; each must try to rob and murder first, before he is robbed and murdered.

The American system is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was put to death legally, because the majority didn’t like what he was saying, although he had initiated no force and had violated no one’s rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom . . . .

The American system is a constitutionally limited republic, restricted to the protection of individual rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic principles governing the government. It has no power to ask for or gain the infringement of individual rights.

Surprise, surprise. The average voter wants a 2/3rd majority vote of their representatives to raise taxes, but only a simple majority to increase government spending and regulation.

Who would ever have guessed?

Certainly making it harder to raise taxes, but still comparatively easy to raise spending won't lead to budget deficits like those in California.

No sirree Bob.

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