I chose not to post the entirety of my article here because of its length. Moreover, I dedicated a great deal of time to researching and writing it and prefer to maintain the copyright.
Although no Humanist would admit it, Humanism is a religion; it fits the definition of religion perfectly. Moreover, anyone who calls himself and atheist is effectively a Humanist whether he professes the “faith” or not. Atheists that deny their Humanism simply haven’t thought out the implications of their belief; once they do they realize the tenets (I call it the “catechism”) of Humanism align with their views.
Although Karl Marx, and every Communist since, maintains that Communist governments have no state religion, they all exclusively mandate the religion of Humanism.
Per Article XIX of the Colorado Constitution an amendment to the Constitution of Colorado (TABOR is an amendment to Article X) is initiated in the State House or Senate, has to pass by a two-thirds majority in the House, then the Senate, then it goes to vote of the people. Therefore, TABOR was voted on by the Colorado House, Senate, and people.
The reference Fenster makes to the U.S. Constitution concerns his assertion that TABOR somehow takes away Colorado’s republican form of government (which is the requirement in the US Constitution). For his claim to be valid one must assume that the fundamental functions of a government are taxing and spending (as Fenster claims). But this is simply not true - their function is to represent the people. If they want to raise taxes they decide within the Senate and House to do so, then send it to the voters as a referendum. There is no violation of the republican form of gov’t.
The point about minority rules in straight democracy was addressed by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper number 22 (http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fed22.htm). In short, the idea is that as simple majority in a pure democracy can actually be decided by a minority.
Imagine an issue or election put up for vote with 4 possible outcomes. If decided by a simple majority, then the winning outcome only needs more than 25% of the total votes cast. Therefore, decisions could be made by a minority of the total population. A republic, as defined by the founders and Constitution, minimizes this problem - mostly by virtue of the Senate but also by the system of representative government in general.