How direct democracy is being pushed to destroy the Constitution.
There is a subversive element moving through the American culture, that proclaims to be standing for our values. It claims that protecting the Voice of the Citizen is paramount to preserving the values on which we were founded. One man (or woman), one vote. However, like the the devil quoting scripture and twisting it to his own ends, this element does the same with our founding principles.
This element is moving away from our republican form of government, and pushing us ever closer to direct democracy. We see this in the National Popular Vote Pact, which seeks to override the electoral college, Signatory states pledge that whomever wins the national popular vote for president, will receive their electoral votes. Should that state have gone for the candidate that lost the popular vote, too bad voters, you have no power here.
We see this in the eighteen states that allow for citizen driven referenda agendas to amend their constitutions. Prominently featured in this voting cycle are Florida’s Amendment 4, and Missouri’s Amendment 3. These amendments seek to overturn the states’ abortion bans and codify abortion— pardon me, “reproductive healthcare”— into their state constitutions.
While the interstate compact may have dubious motives, any enactment will face Supreme Court scrutiny if enough states sign on and they try to give the electoral votes earned by Candidate A to Candidate B. We are already seeing, and have seen for almost a quarter century, a move to amend the Constitution and do away with the Electoral College. And more recently, there have been a flurry of NPC headlines that center around the theme of “The Constitution is bad for American democracy.”
This is where the mask starts to slip on the element. Where the reality of what the element means starts to coalesce. The move to get us away from a constitutional republic, with elements of democracy at the lowest levels, to a direct democracy. The first move occurred in the forgotten days of the Wilson administration, with the Progressives ushering in the 17th Amendment. With the popular election of the senate, the first salvo was fired against our republic.
But, undermining the republic on a grand scale is difficult. Now, at a smaller, more localized, scale, that is a different story. What if the amendment process for states was opened up for starting at the voter level? Democratizing it, if you will. That is what has happened with the 18 states that allow for ballot measure initiatives to amend the constitutions. The populist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were an attempt to take back power from the states. Then the Progressives took full advantage.
This initiative and referendum process starts with a simple signature gathering operation: develop the amendment language, and present it to the public to gather the required number of signatures, and once verified, on the ballot it goes. This is where progressives excel. A progressive topic easily motivates democrat voters, and all group proposing the amendment needs is a few liberal strongholds in a red state (in Missouri, Kansas City and St. Louis are the go to communities) to get the issue on the ballot.
And for all the complaints of “dark money” from the left, they are masters of manipulating money to make it look like everything is all out in the open. For instance, with the Amendment 3 initiative, you can look at all the financial backers and supporters. Groups like Planned Parenthood (shocker), Women’s Voices Raised For Social Justice (surprise), the ACLU, and The Sierra Club (?), have dumped millions into this movement to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban.
Our government is designed to balance power between the citizens and those that govern them. Any system that tips that balance one way or the other is detrimental to society as a whole. And the left loves the Cloward and Piven Strategy: top down, bottom up, inside out to destroy systems. And this is an assuredly bottom up strategy for up-ending our system to make America a direct democracy, and destroy our constitutional republic.
Earlier this year, Missouri’s legislature made moves to fight back against these initiative and referendum attacks on it’s constitution. With Senate Joint Resolution 74, the ballot initiative process would’ve enjoined having a majority of congressional districts approving measures to the majority vote. But, groups like The Fairness Project fought against it, and the bill died in May. When it died, The Fairness Project praised the move as a “victory for direct democracy.” Missouri democrats in the senate filibustered for 50 hours, until the bill’s GOP sponsor, Mary Elizabeth Coleman voted to send the bill back to committee. Despite a 24-10 supermajority, the bill failed due to a lack of spine by her colleagues. So, in a sense of irony lost on the “majority rule” unions, labor activists, and other leftist groups, majority did not lose, and the bill was vetoed by the minority.
If any lessons are to be learned from those fighting for converting us to a direct democracy, it is that constitutionalists need to develop the kinds of financial and activist networks, to return the balance of power. To return to the constitution, and away from some imaginary rise of the proletariat.
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