Opinion: Why do California’s progressives want to gut our direct democratic tools?
In “Star Wars,” Princess Leia warned the Galactic Empire’s Death Star commander, “The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.” The Progressive Empire of California, consisting of public employee unions, interest groups and politicians with liberal agendas, wants to prevent end runs to its rule in the Golden State.
In 1911, direct democracy measures were instituted in California to offset the power of business, primarily, the Southern Pacific Railroad, to influence the state Legislature. More than a hundred years later, the script has flipped. The Legislature is now under the influence of a progressive alliance.
Results in recent referendum elections have been mixed. Voters sided with the referendum qualifiers to overturn a law to replace the money bail system but agreed with legislative action to ban single-use plastic bags and prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products. On the initiative side, voters sided with companies such as Uber and Lyft to veto a measure forcing ride-sharing companies to recognize their independent contractors as employees.
Under the bill, an initiative attempting to cancel legislation that passed in the last two years must collect the more than half-a-million required signatures in 90 days, more quickly than the 180-day time limit usually afforded initiatives — an obvious shot at the success of the Uber and Lyft initiative. Referendums already must meet the 90-day standard. Collecting so many signatures in such a short time is a difficult and an expensive operation.
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