Posted on 11/04/2009 7:26:26 PM PST by indianrightwinger
It is too hard for me to swallow the fact that a properly passed law in Maine was repealed in a public referendum. This just seems wrong. The proper course of action was to throw out the bums who passed the law in the first place and then have a subsequent legislature / Governer repeal the law. While the "outcome" in this case was favorable to conservative point of view, it is impossible for me to see how it benefits the conservative movement in the long run. Remember, gay marriage was made legal in Maine by the elected government - NOT juducial fiat like in other cases. I am all for public referendums on judicial activist rulings that "make" law. Maine case is utterly different.
Ref 71 is passing in Washington.
The concept is - the public can overturn bad legislation through the referendum process. I think it is a good safeguard that I wish were used MORE often.
What ever happened to the will of the people? While the bums that passed the bad law should be run out of office, addressing the horrid measure needed to come first.
“The people are the fountain and the original of all power” - John Adams.
The people themselves, when necessary can act as a legislature. There is nothing improper about them taking the responsiblity of making laws themselves.
The power to make laws is delegated to legislatures by the people. They have every authority to take it back from them, and instead of having others act in their stead, act themselves.
I’m all for the whole panoply of the early 20th century progressive reforms: the referendum, initiative, and recall.
Passing it means approving the law as the worthless bastards in Olympia wrote it.
That is true. I was not raising questions about the constitutionality or the legality of the process.
Politically, it seems shortsighted to approve of such a process because it can just as easily (as it most often does) produce opposite outcomes than what conservatives believe in. Oregon assisted suicide? Medical pot in CA?
So, if Congress passes Obamacare and Cap and Tax, tax, tax against the will of the people, you are OK with that?
If the referendum is a duly validated part of the state of Maine’s constitution, then yours or anyone else’s happiness is immaterial. When you say “our system of government wasn’t set up that way”, are you referring to the Maine government (which was set up that way) or the federal (which was not)?
I don’t understand the reticence to use a legitimate tool of redress under the Maine constitution. In this case in particular, the people did not MAKE law, but only PREVENTED it by opposing an act of their legislature they disagreed with.
If you registered your phone number with the “do not call” list, you have done the exact same thing - prevented what you consider a negative act by someone else (calling you unsolicited) by a legal preemptive move (registering your phone number).
If you oppose the legitimate tool called referendum, you must also oppose the legitimate tool called do-not-call.
Of course not. That is why we have the 2010 elections to throw the bums out. I will be donating profusely for many campaigns that will replace DEM representatives and Senators.
Obviously, that elected gov't. was not representative of the people who elected them.
The better is the enemy of good enough. Reasonable people can differ on what is better, and what is good enough. The Referendum gives the people a chance to vote on a single issue, whereas legislatures can support you on issues ABC and be against you on issue D. They thus can benefit from higher levels of noise in their signal...rather like and enemy trying to penetrate our air defense systems while taking advantage of jamming.
Rather nice to be able to reject the jamming and turn back the attack.
Bill of Rights...10th Amendment.
The bastards that wrote this initiative made it so confusing, I swear I still don’t know what’s going on.
You can’t “endorse a process”, but you can condemn a legal method of redress under the state of Maine’s constitution.
Your reasoning on this appears to be oval - not even rising to the level of circular.
Why do you think that overturning one constitutional act (representative enacted law) with another constitutional act (voter referendum) is less than legitimate?
As we have seen countless times, politicians are far more likely to act in their own self interest (in this case, pandering to the homosexuals to get political correctness points) than to act in what is TRULY the will and interests of the people and the state.
Voter referendum is there just in case the politicians don’t follow the will of the people.
Remember, the politicians get their authority from the people, not the other way around.
The referendum method is merely a tool.
The message is the medium. Conservatives must present our opinion in a forthright and convincing manner, no matter whether it be to elect conservative representatives, or to redress issues under a legal mechanism such as the referendum. Decrying this means is akin to forcing Tiger Woods to leave his driver in the bag.
Laws are made all the time by “majority rule” except we use representatives and it is their majority. But we are supposed to have the Constitution to make sure that the majority does not become a tyrannical mob like Reid, Pelosi, and Obama.
In a democracy the people get the government they deserve. A referendum is a check on the legislature and the courts. Here the people of Maine have spoken to their legislature. They have chosen wisely. I'm sure that it will be challenged in the courts.
Maybe the courts will think like you and overturn the will of the people.
Would that make you happy?
Do you have a problem with the right of the state to determine its own laws? Did you know that the original anti-drug laws were enacted by southern Democrats because they wanted new ways to put blacks in prison to work on their prison plantations? Did you know that law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court? Did you know that FDR threatened to expand the Supreme Court to 15 members so he could pack it with yes men in order to get his unconstitutional laws to pass constitutional muster?
If it was up to me, I would eliminate about 98% of the federal power because it is unconstitutional anyway.
While I am glad the Mainers repealed single sex marriage, there voice was loud and clear on the other ballot iniatives. They voted with a 70% majority to maintain an onerous annual car registration fee of hundreds of dollars. Also, 60 percent of Mainers trusted the legislature to raise taxes without a confirmatory referendum on another iniative. The overall lesson is while they may not walk in lockstep with the balding, ponytailed, state lawmakers on social issues, they still love their entitlements.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.