13835

Congressional candidate loses bid to go by ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ on ballot

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/28/lets-go-brandon-colorado-candidate/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_politics

Can we grow up just a little bit, please?

13836

One of the many problems with the modern GOP is how profoundly unserious they are.

13837

As the minority party, the GOP will continue to attract the bottom of the barrel.

13838

It will in high school and college sports. I think even people who are in favor of not discriminating against trans people in ordinary walks of life will be uncomfortable with the sports question. A high caliber male athlete who transitions to female is likely to dominate.

13839

This is kind of crazy.

Republican legislatures don’t like voters going around them to approve ballot initiatives for popular things. So look for them to erect ever-higher hurdles in order to keep initiatives off the ballot or make them harder to pass.

13840

Even there I think there are issues, and it’s an important fight to fight, because it’s important to avoid othering, and while a lot of the trans community chafes at assimilation, it’s valuable.

(there’s a conflation between assimiliation and masking/“stealth”, which is very hard, and impossible for some)

13841

Except for the racism, misogyny, and self-dealing. They’re deadly serious about that!

13842

“The same single sheet of paper” - what is the rational basis for that as opposed to having the text fully available on a clipboard? (I do agree the text should be fully available but what - are we gonna require papyrus scrolls? single sheet of paper my ass.)

13843

Well, you know, there’s all that ballot initiative fraud, where they get you to sign a list by showing you a separate piece of paper and then, after you sign, they switch them! Muwah-hah-haaaah!

13844

I mean, I actually think it’s reasonable to have some length limits on voter initiatives (in CA there is a “single subject” rule but that’s been interpreted to allow some mega-long initiatives) with the idea that beyond a certain level of detail, it really needs to go to the legislature. But a single sheet of paper is ridiculous.

If it were me, I’d probably limit the length to 10 pages of 14 point font (and 14 point is reasonable IMO so people with all kinds of vision can read it). Although if I’m being honest about what most voters would actually read, it would probably be limited to 2 pages if we’re lucky.

I haven’t signed an initiative in like 25 years for many reasons but the laughable length and detail of some has been an issue for me. I’m pretty sure there were these competing super-complicated initiatives about kidney dialysis (sponsored by competing entities with financial stakes in dialysis naturally) in CA recently that were like dozens or hundreds of pages long.

It’s weird to me as a Californian as MY issue is mostly excessive/inappropriate use of the voter initiative process. Meanwhile in red and purple states, the problem is the opposite.

I have to be careful not to apply my CA biases to different circumstances in different states.

13845

This is not just a rule that says the initiative must be a single sheet of paper. It is a rule that says all the collected signatures must also be on that same single sheet of paper.

13846

OK I just flipped my pencil.

Whatevs, South Dakota, whatevs. That is some insanity.

13847

That’s going to be the dodge. Custom print jobs with foldable long sheets of paper, like we used to get from dot matrix printers. So technically one big piece of paper that has the petition and room for thousands of signatures.

The whole ballot initiative game is kind of slimy so I’m having trouble getting worked up about this. Republicans are against it now in the midwest because it got used last cycle to pass marijuana legalization. Then they had to spend a lot of money on bogus lawsuits to get the initiatives thrown out (see South Dakota, Nebraska). But in the past monied Republican interests have used the initiative system in certain states to buy laws when their pet legislators didn’t perform as desired. At the end of the day it’s a system where anyone with the $$$ for signature gatherers and marketing can try to get any law they want passed while bypassing the legislature. I’m not sure I’m a fan of that.

13848

Well, there is a legitimate concern as to the use of paid signature gatherers. It’s my view that the 20th Century Progressive Party reformers who pushed initiatives rules in many did not intend to allow for paid signature gathering (the practice did not exist back then). However, in our wonderful modern world, according to the US Supreme Court, “money is speech” so good luck with restricting paid signature gathering.

13849

The initiative process in California has become a joke. I now pretty much vote against all initiatives on the ballot.

I really can’t afford to have my legal team go thru them and actually explain what they will mean to me once passed.

13850

So, CVS receipt incoming?

13851

I suspect the “rationale” for the single sheet of paper is that it prevents you from including signatures from people who might have signed up for something that isn’t that initiative.

13852
13853

This knucklehead.

13854

Is there a better representative for the modern GOP than Madison Cawthorn? He embodies so many virtues of the party.