Let’s not kid ourselves. The state initiative process has been overrun by interest groups astroturfing as “citizen led” for decades. I first noticed it as a student in Seattle. “Make your voice heard – so long as your voice matches the millions of dollars we’ve thrown into this specifically to fuck you.”
You’re not wrong. Somehow, though, even that deeply corrupt process has managed to out-democracy the unfathomably more corrupt process that leads to which elected leaders get into office and what they do with it.
Somehow, when it comes down to it, “Do you want abortion to be legal” can still receive a resounding “yes” from the people of the state. Putting extra layers in the way of that happening is still a bad thing I think even though the underlying process is subject to the same swampy awfulness that the whole rest of the thing is subject to.
That’s politics backed up by dark money for you! Washington and Oregon are the only two states I’ve lived in at voting age that had initiatives. And the first one I encountered in college … well, I’d not be in journalism without that. (not that I’m currently in journalism, but why split hairs when we’re now a target of the government?)
At least those states have them. Cries in WV which does not.
