Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Document Notes
Found a surprising amount of evidence in this article about how, when people are allowed to vote and have their votes count, they can be aligned on social needs and issues.. despite all the propaganda to the contrary.
Highlights
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Ballot initiatives and referendums are the only large-scale means of direct legislation we have, and as such are a good barometer for democratic institutions. Where the local party in power is uncomfortable with people having a direct say in legislation, it’s a good bet that those politicians aren’t governing in most people’s best interests. That’s because when voters are allowed to legislate for themselves, they tend to agree on a lot of core issues.
✏️ This is interesting. In the US, when people’s votes actually count, one to one, the end result is they tend to agree on core issues. (see below) 👓 empowerment politics 🔗 View Highlight
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every single state initiative to raise the minimum wage has passed going back to 1996, with an average of 60 percent support in red and blue states alike.
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During Barack Obama’s presidency, Republicans made opposition to Medicaid expansion a pillar of their platform, but when voters have petitioned to put the expansion on the ballot in Republican states, it has passed almost every time
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Abortion is supposed to be the polarizing issue par excellence, but all seven votes on abortion rights or bans since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision have gone for reproductive freedom (four initiatives to protect abortion rights passed, while three to ban abortion failed).
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initiative that is popular with voters but unpopular with party leaders — they usually try to avoid appearing as though they’re simply against democracy. Instead, they tend to take a more subtle, death-by-a-thousand-papercuts approach — legislation that makes the process more expensive and less accessible, bad-faith bureaucratic obstacles, overly burdensome technicalities, and lengthy court challenges.
✏️ Leaders that are against things being voted on by the people, then have to get clever with killing those votes or efforts. (see below) 🔗 View Highlight
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Some of the most common methods state and local governments use to weaken citizen initiatives have been trying to increase the winning percentage it takes to pass initiatives; upping the number or widening the geographic distribution of signatures required (which hikes up costs for campaigns); arbitrarily changing deadlines and paperwork requirements; imposing “single-subject” rules that can sound like common sense but in practice enable courts to toss initiatives by claiming they relate to more than one thing; imposing divisive or misleading ballot language; sponsoring competing measures meant to confuse voters; and so on.