Forget the presidential election. If Kamala Harris wins, there will still be a fight back in some states. But all 50 states risk tyranny unless George Soros, his son Alexander, and their cohorts take action to subvert the progressive ballot initiative process that uses a tiny percentage of the population to push poll-validated issues as constitutional amendments.
Imagine voting for yourself to get a pay raise through the ballot. Imagine the process where a small percentage of voters gather signatures to create a constitutional right to charity. Could you get 51% of the votes in a majority Republican state to oppose such an idea?
Who wouldn't want to tax wealthy corporations in order to get free cash? This is the kind of “electoral tyranny” that the Founding Fathers warned about.
A constitutional republic differs from a simple democracy because it is governed by elected representatives, not by the people. It also sets out fixed rights and protects them from the whims of a manipulated majority. That's why the Founding Fathers made it extremely difficult to amend the Constitution, requiring a two-thirds vote in both houses and ratification by three-quarters of the states.
But in most states, changing the state constitution is much easier: citizens can amend their state constitution with a simple majority vote at the ballot box. Thanks to early 20th century progressives, 21 states allow these changes to be put on the ballot through initiative petitions. Of these states, 17, mostly in the West, allow citizens to directly change their state constitutions through initiative.
As a result, a small number of well-funded special interest groups can easily gather the signatures of the 5 to 8 percent of voters needed to get on the ballot by targeting the most liberal parts of the state, then spend tens of millions of dollars on campaigns to amend the constitution every two years using attractive, poll-proven language that avoids the scrutiny of the legislative process.
Popular referendums, which America's Founding Fathers hated, began in western states like South Dakota and Oregon in the early 1900s. California and Oregon have enacted the most popular referendums in the past century, with Oregon leading the way with 446 since 1904. These referendums include measures that strip people of their gun rights, like the one that went into effect in 2022.
In a single election, Oregon codified the “right to affordable health care” with Measure 111 while simultaneously infringing on the right to bear arms with Measure 114. Supporters of both bills outspent opponents by 30 to 1, and both passed by just one point.
This year, voters Measure 118has proposed a 3% tax on Oregon corporations and a universal basic income of $1,600 for Oregon residents. The appeal is obvious: Who wouldn't want to tax the wealthy and corporations to have free cash to spend? This is the very kind of “electoral tyranny” the Founding Fathers warned about.
If you think that's impossible in Republican-leaning states, consider that there have been successful votes in conservative areas to expand Medicaid and significantly increase the minimum wage. Alaska, Missouri, and Oklahoma are set to vote on minimum wage increases this year, and several other states are also grappling with legal challenges.
Alexis de Tocqueville warned of a pure democracy in which the people have an “ardent, insatiable, eternal, and invincible passion for equality.” He pointed out that people would desire equality in liberty, but would also accept equality in slavery if that was all they could get. People would tolerate poverty, slavery, and barbarism, but not aristocracy or anything they perceive as others having more. Mob rule, Tocqueville advised, would lead people to prefer “equality in slavery to inequality in liberty.”
People are not only voting for pay raises, but are also making decisions on important issues that have not been thoroughly vetted through direct democracy that lacks the traditional thoughtful approach of legislation. For example, there are efforts to pass misleadingly worded abortion-on-demand bills in battleground states like Arizona and Nevada, but also in solidly Republican states like Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Additionally, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana have implemented ranked choice voting on their ballots, but they present it in a way that is too complicated to adequately write on the ballot.
Several states have proposed changes, including a ballot initiative in Arizona this year. If passed, Proposition 134 would require signatures from 10 to 15 percent of the state's voters. Each legislative district to qualify a bill for a vote. This requirement for more unified support is consistent with the spirit of the amendment process at the federal level.
While Arizonans will vote on the changes at the front end of the process, Utah residents will decide in November whether to enforce more uniformity on voting results after the measure is placed on the ballot. The Utah Republican Party recently held a special session to pass a ballot measure that would allow the Legislature to overturn or amend ballot measures with serious financial consequences, if approved by voters.
In recent years, Utah's initiative petition process has been used to pass bills such as marijuana legalization, Medicaid expansion and the creation of an unconstitutional redistricting commission.
One effective proposal emerged from the Utah debates that could serve as a model for other states: requiring all proposed constitutional amendments to receive majority support from all of a state's legislative districts. This approach is consistent with a federal system that requires supermajority support from both Congress and the states. In Federalist No. 39, James Madison explained the advantages of a representative republic over a democracy: “It is essential for such a government to be composed of the greater part of the community, and not of a small proportion or favored class.”
Ultimately, we must take action to stop the Soros family’s 50-state strategy to implement their dystopian, illiberal agenda. If we do not stop Democrats from gaining influence in Republican-leaning states, we risk losing our republic to unchecked mob rule.
