"Ballot Initiatives, You're in danger girl!"-Mo Leg's power grab

“For, if liberty and equality, as some persons suppose, are chiefly to be found in a democracy, it must be so by every department of government being alike open to all; but as the people are in the majority, and what they vote is law, it follows that such a state is a democracy." —Aristotle With the first snowfall for the year, and the congressional session starting to fire back up on all cylinders- We start to see the wheels of democracy at work. With it, we also start to get a glimpse of what our political leaders have in mind for us. Anyone that has been paying attention to the Missouri legislative branch and the super majority knows that it's probably not going to be a good thing. Let me do a quick recap on what elections brought. Aside from the crazies keeping their seats, we picked up 6 more democrat seats, but those cleverly deceptively written ballot measures passed (4A and 5A). Amendment 4 gave the state the right to take away local control via our law enforcement funding. Then there's the whole creating a private army ordeal that Amendment 5 created. Personally, I don't see this ending well for Missouri. Considering the National Guard falls under the DOD and DOT which are both federal. Hopefully, the Federal will fight this because giving the current supermajority its own army is (And I cannot stress this enough) a really bad idea. Right now there's a more pressing issue on the table quite literally. And that's our ballot initiatives. Now for folks that are unfamiliar with our ballot initiatives. They are what allow the average citizen to create, amend or repeal state legislation outside of the constraints of the Missouri legislative branch. Generally, it requires a certain amount number of citizens' signatures to get it to the ballot for voters to get the final say in whatever is being presented on the initiative--Be it through direct initiatives (goes directly to the ballot) or indirect initiatives which have to go through our legislative body to become law.[1] At the end of the day, it's still one of the purest and most beautiful forms of democracy in action that Missouri has to offer. But since it actually gives voters a voice in what they would like to see done and the direction the state should it. It's under attack by the supermajority, and is in major jeopardy, as it was pointed out by State Senator Cindy O’Laughlin -that is the first thing on the chopping block in the senate because Missourians like their pot. [2]. But the real reason is there is a petition coming up in 2024 to get the draconian abortion trigger law repealed. As our legislators saw our neighbors, over in Kansas, who overly whelming pass to keep abortion legal through the ballot initiatives. It's a plausible argument to say that something like there here would be passed here, and the super majority doesn't like the idea that folks would actually get a say in their own laws. Clearly, because of their past behavior of gutting voter passed legislation to killing initiatives when it suits them. I mean a good example is the "Clean Missouri" initiative.[3] It was passed, then the GOP in charge told us that we were too stupid to understand what we voted for. Then killed the law and rewrote it to benefit themselves, threw it on the ballot to have Missouri voters repeal it, and passed the atrocious law we have now that lets gerrymandering, corruption, and outside influence from lobbyists go on.[4] The stark reality is Missourians knew what they were voting for the first time and the super majority didn't like the fact, that it was a bipartisan effort to put an end to their shenanigans in the halls of the congressional building in Jefferson City. So, why not wipe out the whole process in general right? Granted, the GOP in the state congress has been taking swipes at our ballot initiatives for years. It's nothing new. Either trying to move the "goal post" with the number of signatures needed on the petition to disqualifying signatures through the Attorney General's office. It's always been a messy situation with the one-party rule syndicate that keeps us rolling us back to the 1850s. It's been a real problem since 2018 for the GOP trying to take out this process, but the most recent attacks have been through this past spring session of this year.[5] When our handful of Democrats on Mo Leg gave a fierce filibuster to stop the aggressive bills to amend the constitution on the initiatives. [6] And with Cindy O’Laughlin at the helm of our state Senate, there is no doubt that she will prevent any protective bills to keep our initiatives in place a hard pass. Of course, for us, we can only hope that there's more internal drama that happens with the GOP (as horrible as that sounds) to keep that part of democracy alive on the state level with crazies that are occupying the seats in state legislatures. What folks don't realize is that ballot initiative are a small but vital process that gives people a way to get their voices known. If we lose that ability to use this process-- we will lose our ability to take part in active forms of government from a citizens' level. We lose the one thing that gets us heard to shape the way we want our state to be or where it should head for the future. Yes, this is a big deal, and yes we should be really concerned that our voted lawmakers want to take that away from their constituents. Suppression of the people's voice is something that happens in dictatorship rule, and the last time I checked we still lived in the United States--Where democracy is still a thing, and not in the United Jesusland of the Conservatives... As ugly and messy as democracy can be, it's what we were promised eons ago, and it's our job to maintain all of its processes. So, folks, it's a good idea to keep an eye on the upcoming legislation and I'll do my best to keep up with it as it starts rolling out in a few months. As always take care and be good to one another, Peace out and Much love, Jojo Citations: 1. https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_initiative https://themissouritimes.com/missouris-initiative-petition-process-how-does-it-work/ 2. https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2022-11-11/new-missouri-senate-majority-leader-sees-ballot-initiatives-and-education-as-top-issues 3. https://missouriindependent.com/2020/11/04/voters-repeal-clean-missouri-redistricting-plan-they-enacted-in-2018/ https://themissouritimes.com/what-is-the-clean-missouri-initiative/ 4. https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/state_news/voters-approved-clean-missouri-but-lawmakers-want-them-to-reconsider/article_4a4739e4-404d-11e9-b735-bfff863b5ed4.html 5. https://labortribune.com/missouri-ballot-initiative-process-survives-legislative-attack/ 6. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/05/11/democrat-filibuster-derails-gop-measure-to-change-initiative-petition-process/