While California's Proposition 8 has assumed the national spotlight as far as ballot initiatives go, there are other ballot questions in other states that are getting less attention than they should. We are currently facing one such question in Connecticut.
Now, those of you who are super-savvy on the subject of state laws may be saying to me via the computer screen, "Wait a minute, Connecticut doesn't have ballot initiatives! What gives?" This is true. But what gives is that there is a clause in our state constitution that requires the question to be posed on the ballot every twenty years: "Should there be a convention to amend the state constitution?" The option has never been exercised since the ratification of the constitution in 1965.
However, there is now an urgent matter that has befallen Connecticut due a serious flaw in our state's most important document that MUST be addressed immediately, even if it requires the most draconian of means, lest our children and our children's children forever pay the consequences.
You guessed it: We forgot to ban gays from getting married.
Of course, those in favor of the convention don't like to mention the specific reasons for it, but the intentions of the advertising funded by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations likely has little to do with establishing administration on a regional level. Its outbreak also coincided handsomely with the State Supreme Court's landmark decision declaring that the idea of Marriage for Heteros, Civil Unions for Everyone Else amounts to "Separate But Equal," thus bringing the even more landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education into the fray (which could be a death knell to institutionalized gay bashing on an even greater level).
Instead of leading an all-out gay bashing effort like their allies in California, proponents of the convention are of using the dangling carrot of Initiative and Referendum to lure voters into biting. I don't think I need to lecture anyone here on Daily Kos about what a disastrous form of democracy ballot initiatives really are. The problem is it's hard to explain to Bob the Electrician (sorry, that asshole Joe the Plumber lives in Ohio; this is C-Town business) that it's a bad idea for him to have such a powerful say in public policy no matter how uninformed he may be about the bill in question and how misleading the question on the ballot is. And of course there are other nefarious plots lurking in the background, such as nullifying workers' rights, environmental laws, and corporate taxes. Oh, and then there's the stated objective of establishing the Right To Have That Baby Whether You Want To Or Not Because I Said So.
Not only is the potential agenda rather ominous, but the formation of the convention itself would be a political doozy: The delegates would not be elected by the people, but rather appointed by the state legislature. Enter the lobbyists and party bosses. And they would be the ones who, at the taxpayers' expense, would re-write our state's constitution without our input.
It's true that there are important issues like the aforementioned regionalization of government that could warrant an amendment. What has gone unsaid by the "Yes On 1" side is that you don't need to declare open season on the constitution in order to accomplish that. Since 1970, Connecticut's constitution has been amended 30 times, no convention necessary.
In fact, the U.S. Constitution allows for the passage of an amendment by convention as well. Two thirds of the state legislatures must call for a convention to propose an amendment, which must then pass the ratification process. This method, like the convention provision in Connecticut, has never been used, and with good reason as it has never been defined how such a convention would work. Yet we have amended the U.S. Constitution twenty seven times since 1789. I see no reason why Connecticut needs to go down this very risky road.
While Obama will still be the main event next Tuesday, I will be keeping one eye on my fellow Nutmeggers and hoping they don't decide to chase the carrot of ballot initiatives. There certainly are some things our state could be doing better. But there's a whole lot we could be doing worse. And I guarantee, the worse will be the only agenda on the floor at this convention.
Visit www.CTVoteNo.org for more info.
This is my first post ever to Daily Kos. I hope I've done well.