There is an awful lot of anger on the internet about this, but one thing I haven't seen discussed at all is the business of referring it to the voters in the form of a ballot initiative. That one...
There is an awful lot of anger on the internet about this, but one thing I haven't seen discussed at all is the business of referring it to the voters in the form of a ballot initiative.
That one thing seems to me to be the most important part of the whole issue--in fact, the Democrats specifically put an "emergency clause" in the bill to make sending this to the voters particularly difficult. It really smacks of trying to ram something through while they have the majority, instead of actually representing what Oregonians want for their state.
The minority is unanimously against the measure and wants to send it to the voters to decide. The majority is bent on passing it no matter what, and has taken actions to make it specifically difficult to put on the ballot. The minority stages a walkout, stalling the bill. The majority then sends the cops...yet somehow are portrayed as the bastions of the democratic process?
Personally, I think everyone involved in this is a great disappointment. Ballot initiatives exist specifically to deal with highly contentious issues like this--it seems to me that intentionally trying to keep the public out of it is a bigger deal than a walkout.
There is an awful lot of anger on the internet about this, but one thing I haven't seen discussed at all is the business of referring it to the voters in the form of a ballot initiative.
That one thing seems to me to be the most important part of the whole issue--in fact, the Democrats specifically put an "emergency clause" in the bill to make sending this to the voters particularly difficult. It really smacks of trying to ram something through while they have the majority, instead of actually representing what Oregonians want for their state.
The minority is unanimously against the measure and wants to send it to the voters to decide. The majority is bent on passing it no matter what, and has taken actions to make it specifically difficult to put on the ballot. The minority stages a walkout, stalling the bill. The majority then sends the cops...yet somehow are portrayed as the bastions of the democratic process?
Personally, I think everyone involved in this is a great disappointment. Ballot initiatives exist specifically to deal with highly contentious issues like this--it seems to me that intentionally trying to keep the public out of it is a bigger deal than a walkout.