I’ve previously mentioned the lame-duck sessions in Wisconsin and other states, which are passing legislation to strip incoming Democratic office-holders of the powers traditionally associated with those offices. In a related development, it appears the Republicans don’t really take voter-approved initiatives seriously, as Steve Benen notes:
In Florida, for example, voters easily approved Amendment 4, which is set to restore the voting rights of an estimated 1.5 million former felons. Florida Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis (R), a former far-right congressman, is now “slow walking the implementation” of the voter-approved measure.
And in Utah, voters approved a measure legalizing medical marijuana, prompting the Republican-led legislature to intervene and pass a more restrictive measure – supplanting the policy approved by Utahans.
The question that may come to mind is whether or not voters of all stripes will be outraged at this usurpation of voter privilege. Regardless of whether or not you approve of any particular initiative, or the entire concept of voter-initiated legislation/constitutional amendments, decisions by State legislatures to ignore or attenuate this aspect of democracy must be unsettling.
With this in mind, I’m here to report that, in a recent visit with my Arts Editor’s family, outrage has already been expressed at these GOP power grabs, and this in a conservative part of the country. I’m beginning to suspect the Republican Party is in the process of handing a real big hammer to the Democrats for the 2020 election, if only the Democrats can recognize and use it effectively.
In a way, it’s not surprising that the second- and third-raters who make the leadership of the Republican state parties would commit an unforced error of this sort (repression of anti-gerrymandering measures, as may be happening in Michigan, is more of a forced error, I’ll grant). It’s ever the curse of third-raters that they can’t think beyond the end of their prejudices.
But that doesn’t mean the Democrats can effectively take advantage of this set of blunders.
