Looks like the Reps are at it again!
Another deceptive initiative is making the rounds to the A.G.’s office for “title and summary” and then most likely to the super-market or Wal-Marts for signature gathering and then on the now infamous June 2008 ballot.
This time, it’s an attempt to steal the Presidential election. Yup, through the backdoor again because they know they’re not going to win the White House by blasting through the front door in 2008. Too much failed neoconservative ideology for the American people, and they know it.
So what’s the latest ploy? An initiative to split California’s electoral votes rather than use the long-standing system where the majority vote-getter takes the state’s full complement of electoral votes, which in this super-sized state is 55, or more than 10% of the 538 nationwide. The plan is to give electoral votes to the candidate who carries the most votes by congressional district. So, for example, if the Republican presidential nominee wins in say, Jerry Lewis district, or John Doolittle (to name a couple of the more dubious Reps), the nominee gets to count that vote in his electoral pocket. If this were the way all votes were counted—in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, etc. it would make more sense and certainly be more fair. But that’s not a phrase in the neocon lexicon. It’s all about winning, at any price, as we’ve already seen this decade and if the Reps can walk away with 20 of California’s electoral votes, that’s as good as going home with Ohio…and perhaps the White House.
The Initiative process continues to be compromised by the big Corporate supporters and ultra-partisan powers that have taken control of the Republican Party. We’ve seen several other potential initiatives emerging for the June, 2008 ballot—that’s the one between the Presidential primary and the November Presidential election. The June primay will not have the appeal or interest and thus everyone expects will be the sleeper with folks not paying attention or suffering voter fatigue with three elections to be held within 10 months of each other. That’s why the corporations and Republicans are trying to invoke these stealth initiatives for low-turnout elections, which traditionally bring out the most conservative voters. Nevermind that the results will be potentially cataclysmic to this state and its priorities, values and principles.
With enough money, the right-wing thinks they can buy just about anything.
It will be up to us, the people, to prove them wrong. Let’s hope we’re up to it.
We’ll be following this cheap-trick very closely in the weeks and months ahead and will be asking all those who believe in real Democracy to join us in fighting against these dishonest and undemocratic ploys by the groups of coporate-fed lackies who want to destroy our state and our democratic way of life.