On Tuesday, folks here in Texas are going to have yet another opportunity to go to the polls and vote on a bunch of poorly explained and mostly unpublicized amendments to the state constitution which may or may not get added to the 450-some forgotten amendments the wretched document already has. The one amendment anyone has heard of is Proposition 2, the notorious redundant anti-gay marriage amendment which is so poorly worded that it could be interpreted to ban marriage altogether - at least according to its opponents. And which is entirely irrelevant since the state already passed a Defense of Marriage act last year. This is the proposition which brought the KKK to Austin on Saturday, and which has got some robot machine calling me up and playing recordings of local ministers, celebrities and Governor Perry telling me to support it. The machine never responds when I scream back at it, for some reason. But it does give me yet another reason not to vote for Perry in next year's election.
The left-wing nuts at the Austin Chronicle have recommended voting against all nine of the amendments, and despite their general insanity, they're probably not far off. As with most of these off-year elections, no one is going to turn out to vote who isn't highly motivated. That means that all the fundamentalists and all the gay activists will basically be voting against each other, and we rational folks in the middle will probably stay home or work late and forget about the whole thing. The worst thing about this kind of election is that Proposition 2 will drive a whole bunch of ill-informed, one-issue ideologues to the polls and they will then also vote on the other seven propositions, about which they know nothing, based solely on the one-sentence description on the ballot, which is probably deliberately worded to make voters think the proposition will do the exact opposite of its actual intended effect.
So to help them out - the three of them who are likely to read this article - here's a quick rundown of the propositions as they'll appear on the ballot plus my take on them.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - dR. kURT
Well reasoned, Dave;
It points up the basic stupidity of treating our Constitutions like "pin the tail on the donkey" games. All of these issues could simply be laws, reasoned through and argued by our representatives, and subject to court examination and later revision if they turn out to be clunkers; instead, zealots make them into Constitutional Amendements - wow, bang, zing - and we are stuck with them.
Then, we have to spend millions to do simple modifications to them, like we just did in Colorado with the TABOR amendment. Dumb and dumber.
2 - Dave Nalle
The reason they're not just plain old laws is that then legislators would have to take responsibility for passing them and debating their merits. This way they just throw them out when no one's paying attention and when they pass they can blame them on the public who voted for them in near total ignorance.
Dave
3 - Dr. Kurt
Good point.
We wind up with a sad dilemna- either legislatures have become useless appendixes, subject to replacement by mass internet voting by the (mostly) uninformed apathetic masses, or we trust our decisions to lobbyist-addled politicians who speedily become so out of touch that they can't make sane decisions... yikes! I guess we have to cope the old fashioned way: vote, monitor, write letters, read, think... dang.
4 - Dave Nalle
I'm afraid most of the kind of voters who turn out for this sort of election aren't up to that thinking thing. They're going to rush down to the polls with their minds filled with nothing but 'homos want to destroy marriage' and then vote yes on all this crap at the same time.
Dave
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
At least in Texas (and in the rest of your country), you have legislative districts. i realize that leads to gerrymandering and all sorts of other problems, but at least the misfits who think they should represent you have to show up at your local greasy spoon (or Starbucks) to shake your hand and actually ask for your vote.
Also, at least you have a constitution. That means that certain concepts are hard to kick out. You should try Israeli style "government" for a while, where the legislators don't give a damn what you think because the only folks they have to please are the boys on the party central committee. That means they can - and generally do - whatever they damned please.
6 - Dave Nalle
Sounds like a few too many Russian Jews got in on the governmental design process there, Ruvy. Very reminiscent of my time in the old SU.
Dave
7 - RedTard
Thanks for the info Dave. I hadn't planned on voting until I read this article. I went with 2 yes's and 7 no's.
8 - Dave Nalle
Glad you voted, Red. People on the left and right might well agree on many of these issues, which seem to benefit only the politicians and no regular people regardless of party or political leanings.
As for me I ended up with 8 nos and 1 yes, and yes wans't on #2, rest assured.
Dave
9 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Actually, it was almost all Russian Jews in on designing the governmental process here.
David Green (later ben-Gurion) - Russia Poland
Moshe Sharett - Russia Poland
Golda Meyerson (later Meir) - Ukraine
Menahem Begin - Russia Poland
Nu?? What did you expect?
10 - Anthony Grande
I agree with Amendment 2 but it really needs to be rewored.
11 - Dave Nalle
Yes, reworded to say about the exact opposite of what it does.
Dave
12 - Anthony Grande
Well the people voted for what they wanted.
San Fransisco is not located in Texas so you have no right to say that one area made the decision for the whole state. The people got what they wanted.
13 - Dave Nalle
Sadly what the people want and what the people need are often two different things.
Dave
14 - Anthony Grande
Some people need help from trained professionals.
15 - unknown
well...im actually reading all these comments for a class that im taking in college. and to be honest with you...i still dont understand anything about the texas constitution.
16 - Dave Nalle
You don't understand anything about the Texas Constitution because it's one of the worst written, over-amended pieces of crap legislation in this nation. You're not supposed to be able to understand it. It exists as a blanket excuse for legislators to get away with whatever ridiculousness they want to with no accountability.
Dave
17 - a dutchman
@13 and they might vote for a third that they don't want and don't need
18 - Matthew T. Sussman
Are they really going to write it in the Constitution in all caps?
19 - Dave Nalle
Apparently so. That's how they put them on the ballot, so I assume it's some sort of requirement.
Dave
20 - a dutchman
Isn't this herited from the times of telex ?