Simon- Sec. of State has validated 900k+ Signatures, Recall a go (Dump Davis)

Hugh Hewitt Show ^ | 7/22/3

[middie]

I am well aware of the rationale' for the existence of these devices. Their benificent, beinign and grass-roots democractic-sounding foundation have a mass appeal that proports to, and may well actually, place in the hands of the voters the extraordinary remedy of replacing an official who has caused great non-impeachable mischief. It also allows the same voters to by-pass the legislative body by creating a method for initiating a statutory proposal and having a referendum on the issue created.

However, those non-republican tools revert the public to the potential for solving what is usually a short term problem by the creation of what typically, throughout the history of these non-republican (small "r") devices, has been a long term, more serious problem. And, perhaps of greater importance, they lend themselves to the abuse of the madding crowd to act rashly in confronting an immediate issue that is perceived to be the fault of the individual target office holder (whether it is or not is not material to this discussion).

An example of the type of problems to which I refer would be something like the irrational act of Nebraska in 1942 of banning the teaching of the German language (whether that was an act of the unicameral Nebraaska legislature or not is also irrelevant). Some one, or some grass roots organization that has the ability to stir-up enough public ire and spend enough money to set the process in motion may be so persuasive as to convince the populous to act-out its anger irrationally.

My point is this, the potential for misuse and abuse of these devices should be balanced against the public good that may come from their use. I neither know any of the details of the present bruhaha in Calif. nor do I know the proof that exists as to the necessity for a recall. I do, of course as a citizen, care about the welfare and financial success of a sister state, that's not the issue. My concern is that we, as Americans, follow an analog of the Hippocratic Oath that says to the voting public: "First do no harm."