Topic: WorldNetDaily
Right-wingers are all for people making decisions about their lives -- until they make decisions that don't adhere to right-wing narratives. Thus, we have Andy Schlafly spending his Nov. 14 WorldNetDaily column whining that ballot initiatives are "mob rule" in the wake of Ohio voters approving abortion rights:
The "will of the people," as expressed by outcomes of heavily funded ballot initiatives, is a canard that should be rejected by Republicans. Direct democracy was feared and opposed by our nation's founders, who established a representative government for the United States and guaranteed "a republican form of government" to each of its member states.
Yet Republican candidates who participated in last week's third presidential debate seemed to misunderstand this crucial point, as reflected by their senseless responses to questions about a recent ballot initiative that just passed in Ohio. Ron DeSantis, for example, unjustifiably blamed the pro-life movement for being "caught flat-footed" by Issue 1, the abortion initiative, without mentioning that God-given rights should not be decided by a popular vote.
Republicans should be defending representative government against misuse of the ballot initiative process, which allows out-of-state industries and liberal billionaires to pass laws contrary to the informed decision-making by each state's elected representatives. Ohio's Issue 1 will benefit the billion-dollar abortion industry, while Issue 2 will profit the expanding marijuana industry by invading Ohio with a predicted $4 billion worth of pot.
Schalafly went on to cheer how Republican politicians will deliberately ignore what the people want:
Fortunately, some members of the Ohio Legislature are rising up against this misuse of ballot initiatives to change the culture of the Buckeye State. Ohio's elected representatives should not take a back seat or bow down to ballot initiatives contrary to what has been the well-established tradition of Ohio and our Constitution.
The passage of the radical Issues 1 and 2 in Ohio are an assault by out-of-state industries and billionaires to transform the state, and its Republican-controlled General Assembly should strongly resist this invasion. Four out of five Republicans voted against Issues 1 and 2, and that is to whom the Republican legislators should be listening, rather than a multi-million-dollar barrage of television ads.
Legislators should not be deterred by chants in the media that "the people have spoken." Representatives exist to resist tyranny by a misled majority, and Republican officials should not abandon the pledges they campaigned on for the benefit of Ohio.
Schlafly didn't why Republicans should ignore the majority of Ohioans who supportted the bill. He then started getting nonsensical:
Caving in to ballot initiatives is a betrayal of representative government, and of voters themselves. By denying the rights of voters to elect representatives to protect their state's way of life, Republicans give residents an incentive to move to Texas and other states that prohibit mob rule through ballot initiatives.
[...]
More Midwesterners will inevitably respond by moving to Texas, where leftists are not allowed to override the legislature. But families in Ohio and Missouri should not have to move to protect their way of life.
If a ballot initiative has been approved by voters, taht means voters have spoken and haven't been "betrayed." He went on to try an advance the argument that people are too stupid to support their own interests and need politicans -- preferably right-wing ones -- to tell them what they need:
Republicans reject the call for a National Popular Vote to pick our president, and instead that office is filled by the Electoral College. Republican candidates for president should campaign on defending our republican form of government against the progressive strategy of direct democracy.
Our Declaration of Independence stands entirely against infringement on God-given rights by popular vote or by any other means. That timeless document describes the concept of unalienable rights as a "self-evident" truth, yet Trump's rivals for president seem to think everything is fair game for ballot initiatives.
Actually, the Constitution, not the Declaration of Independence, runs our country, and Schlafly offered no evidence tha the Constitution prohibits state ballot initiatives.
