With tomorrow's election, Americans are primarily focused on the presidential election and, to a lesser extent, the Congressional election. But the resulting elections will also be conducted at the state level, including ballot measures that seek to impose radical, left-wing policies. These voting measures highlight the dangers of democracy that our Founding Fathers warned about and the importance of preserving our republican form of government.
Tuesday's voting measures
On Tuesday, Americans will decide on 147 ballot measures in 41 states, including 57 citizen-initiated measures that bypass the normal legislative process. The topics covered are wide-ranging, and many of them aim to introduce radical policies that overturn common sense.
For example, 10 states will vote on ballot measures to enshrine abortion in their constitutions. While any proposal to legalize ending the life of a newborn baby is morally reprehensible, some of these ballot measures go further. For example, Colorado's Proposition 79 would allow taxpayers to fund abortions, while New York's Proposition 1 would protect “gender identity” and “gender expression” in addition to abortion. It is supposed to happen.
Several radical election-related referendums will also appear on state ballots. For example, voters in six states and the District of Columbia will decide how to cast their ballots by introducing or promoting ranked-choice voting (RCV), a complex system that, as previously reported by The New American, “threatens the integrity of elections and undermines the integrity of elections.'' The ability of voters to choose the best candidate in an election. ” Further, the Heritage Foundation describes RCV as “a plan that actually de-contests elections and allows candidates with minimal support from voters to win elections.”
Other ballot measures seeking to impose extreme policies include California's Proposition 32, which would raise the state's minimum wage to an economically harmful $18 an hour. Colorado KK proposes to impose a constitutionally questionable 6.5 percent tax on firearms and ammunition. Ohio No. 1 creates an independent redistricting commission of technocrats, eroding representative government. Other voting methods would result in conservative policies being implemented, such as eight states voting to codify a non-referendum ban into the constitution and North Dakota considering significant property tax cuts. This process is primarily used to enact radical, left-leaning policies.
Is the voting procedure constitutional?
Defenders of the voting procedure argue that it “strengthens democracy.” But the United States is not a democracy, and never intended to be one. Instead, it is a constitutional republic, a government that protects God-given rights regardless of the whims of the majority. In fact, Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution requires states to have a “Republican form of government.”
The Founding Fathers, based on their understanding of history and human nature, despised democracy and contrasted it with America's form of government. For example, James Madison argued in Issue 10 of The Federalist: may be found to be incompatible with personal safety or property rights. And generally their lives were as short-lived as they were violent deaths. ” In a letter to John Taylor in 1814, John Adams wrote, “Democracy never lasts long. It quickly wears out, exhausts itself, and kills itself. Democracy without suicide The doctrine did not yet exist.
Elbridge Gerry, speaking at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, argued that “the evils we experience arise from the excesses of democracy.” And Alexander Hamilton, speaking at the New York ratification convention in 1788, said, “The ancient democracies, which the people themselves deliberated upon, had not a single characteristic of good government; their very character was tyrannical. There are several other examples.
The Founders' wariness for democracy is why they designed a government with strong checks and balances, including a bicameral Congress, an electoral college, and divided sovereignty between the states and the federal government. This system was essential to protect Americans' God-given freedoms from government encroachment.
bypassing state legislatures;
In the first decades after the Constitution's ratification, states largely followed the model established by the Founding Fathers. However, from the mid-to-late 19th century, countries increasingly diverged from this framework. The statewide voting process itself began in 1898, with South Dakota being the first state to adopt it.
In the 26 states that currently have citizen-initiated voting processes, individuals and interest groups are bypassing state legislatures, the people's elected representatives, and are rapidly advancing without the same level of oversight that the legislative process guarantees. It is possible to force a vote on policies that
Tomorrow, Americans will make important decisions about which candidates to elect and whether to accept or reject state ballot measures. But if our country is to remain free, we must roll back our democratic tilt and move away from constitutional republicanism. A great way to start is to eliminate the state ballot measure process and the many radical referendums that come with it.
To learn more about how America's form of government differs from democracy, watch the 30-minute video “America Overview.” For more information on the problems with state voting and measure processes, see the article “Restoring State Government” published in the October 14, 2024 issue of New American magazine.
