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Repeal of IM22 Stains SD Reputation, Part of Larger Tilt Against Democracy

Alan Greenblatt of Governing hasn’t forgotten our Legislature’s brazen repeal of Initiated Measure 22. Greenblatt includes South Dakota in a new essay listing states where democratic norms are under attack:

So the assault on fair play isn’t a new idea. Nevertheless, it seems clear to most observers that something new is going on. Maybe it’s a difference in kind, or maybe there really is more openness about bending the rules to suit partisan purposes. Legislators have often been known, for example, to challenge ballot measures in court, or redirect or withhold funds that voters have approved. That still happens. But South Dakota took this tactic one step further this year. The state legislature kicked off its session by overturning a law (an ethics package, no less) that voters had just enacted at the ballot box in November. “Now legislators are picking and choosing what part of the voters’ will they’re going to accept,” says Justine Sarver, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, “and that’s just not how democracy works” [Alan Greenblatt, “Democratic Norms Are Under Attack, and Not Just by Trump,” Governing, 2017.05.18].

Hmm… can “Great Faces, Great Places” and “Low Taxes!” work alongside “Low Respect for Democracy”?

Restoring respect for democracy will require more than a good citizen-initiated constitutional amendment to check Legislative power. It will require legislators who stop seeing themselves as members of an elite club and and recognize their proper role as servant in a democracy that includes everybody.

14 Comments

  1. Porter Lansing 2017-05-18 12:28

    Peeing on the shoes of democracy was so much easier before this darned internet. Now everybody in the whole country can see what’s pushed under the big rug in Pierre. Why can’t things just stay the way they used to be?

  2. Roger Elgersma 2017-05-18 12:45

    The party of personal responsibility does not want you to know when they are not responsible. They do not want an ethics committee, and and they do not want Trump investigated. The best way to teach is by example.

  3. Dana P 2017-05-18 14:46

    We got hoodwinked! And hoodwinked by “outside money” (says the governor and legislature that goes on ALEC road trips, takes money/ideas from ALEC, gets outside money of support from Koch Bros et all)

    Yeah, this governor/legislature talks out of both sides of their mouth. And refuses to listen to contituents. I just can’t for the life of me figure out why South Dakotans, even when they know and express frustration about these things, STILL continually vote against their best interests.

    Headshaker!

  4. grudznick 2017-05-18 17:51

    The ignorant voters were hoodwinked into a sloppily written unconstitutional mess by big out-of-state DARK money.

  5. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-05-18 20:11

    Don’t let grudz cloud your memories, voters. As Porter says, the Legislature has been peeing on us and on democracy. We need to put an end to the Legislature’s disrespect of democracy.

  6. grudznick 2017-05-18 20:24

    Most voters are lazy and ignorant and do not seek out or read bloggings to get partisan opinions on how to vote. They are weak-minded and swayed by the lying commercials, paid for with big, dark, out-of-state money, which infiltrate their minds from the boob-tubes to which they focus their tiny attentions upon each night.

  7. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2017-05-18 20:28

    See, voters? Grudz is just like the Legislature, not respecting you, thinking you are easily swayed dupes whom the wise old legislators must benevolently rule with their superior wisdom and morality.

  8. Jenny 2017-05-18 20:32

    Cory, are you familiar with The Young Turks on you tube? It’s a progressive you tube site, and here is a news segment where they talk about SD IM 22 Repeal “meet the politicians who voted FOR corruption” They really slam the SD legislature for overturning the vote of the people. Good Stuff and they were just as upset as the SD voters that voted for IM 22.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caXvJqphOF0

  9. grudznick 2017-05-18 20:40

    The legislatures as a whole but not individually may have superior wisdom. The ones insaner than most drag that down so much. None of them are morally superior to most of us.

    Who are the “voters” to whom you are liberalizing, Mr. H? Mike, who is from Iowa and is rude? My buddy Lar, from New Mexico? Mr. Lansing, who votes in Colorado? Mr. C, who is a real South Dakotan but who doesn’t need your advice on how to vote?

    I have oft wondered why such a collection of libbie non-voters blogs here. I think it’s for the entertainment value.

  10. Porter Lansing 2017-05-18 20:55

    I blog here because every liberal, once their state is secure should pick a second state to work. It’s like being a community organizer, Grudzie. But, you are very entertaining … in a goat herder sorta way.

  11. Chuck-Z 2017-05-18 21:12

    IM22 passed because Republicans voted for it. In order for the measure to pass, they had to vote “yes”. No Republican I know takes ANY “yes” vote lightly. In any other universe, that would lead to problems for these Republicans who profess themselves smarter than the voters, but we live in South Dakota where the R is like a blind faith religion.

  12. Darrell Solberg 2017-05-18 23:34

    grudz has been in the kool aid again. The corrupt power of our state government is ruining our Democracy. OMG, talking about out of state funding…the majority of the money spent in opposing IM 22 came from the Koch Brother’s that went for misleading advertising. The voters were not hoodwinked, they woke up to reality that there is corruption, lack of transparency, and lack of oversight in S.D. State Government. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  13. CLCJM 2017-05-19 00:00

    Grudz, I often think you have ADD. You seem to be against what most people think just to be oppositional!!

Comments are closed.