King County Councilman Bob Ferguson in his September 2007 e-mail newsletter:
As a public official my top priority is to promote public trust by maximizing public involvement in government.Ferguson must think that refusing to let the public vote on the I-25 charter change this year is a form of "maximizing public involvement in government"!
Perversely, the "public involvement in government" Ferguson is now championing is "publicly financed campaigns". i.e. forcing the public to pay for the campaigns of candidates it doesn't approve of -- which is every bit as fair as forcing the public to spend its time stuffing envelopes for candidates it doesn't approve of.
Maybe instead of dedicating himself to maximizing coerced public involvement in government, Ferguson should have dedicated himself to maximizing voluntary involvement, including letting the public vote for measures he knows that the public wants to approve.
Did you see that BS he gave to Robert Mak about how he is a Democrat because he cares about his kids, or something? Yeah, pull the other one!
Posted by: pudge on September 13, 2007 05:20 PMMr. Pope Just where are you coming from?
After reading you on this blog for years now. I really think you should join the Dem party and the Clintons... Not like you don't follow their path!
The distinction is between VOLUNTARY and forced public involvemnt. The socialists in both big parties want to use force to achieve their utopian ends. E.G. huge welfare programs and the draft.
This official has his top priority wrong. It should be to be true to his oath of office, which is to preserve, protect and defend the state and national constitutions.
But we know he is against at least one constitutional provision; the one about the people's power of the initiative. It gets in the way of expanding his own power. It was intended as a check and balance on the power of the legislature.
Ya know, we I-25 and Eyeman initiative lovers should be careful about how much we promote this idea of direct democracy. It's a double-edged sword. In the extreme, it represents the tyrrany of the majority. All the lefty initiatives like the smoking ban, the leg trap ban and the green power initiatives had the effect of expanding the power of government and violating individual rights.
One day, one of us will be arguing against one of these initiatives, and some big goverenment socialist/populist will say something like this: "Weren't you recently seen defending the Eyeman initiative on the basis that giving people choices and letting people vote on things is a good idea? So how can you argue against it now on the basis of individual rights?" We would look like hypocrites.
The power of initiative should also be limited. The people should not be able to vote on any initiative that violates the rights to life, liberty or property of any individual.
Posted by: Bruce Guthrie on September 13, 2007 08:44 PMIn any event...the last democrat elections director we had in King County lied about just about EVERYTHING in the election and was forced out of office! The last democrat elections director we had appointed our governor! So give us break about padding a resume!
Mantra of the left...LET EVERY VOTE COUNT
Mantra of the Right...LET EVERY LEGAL VOTE COUNT
Mantra of KC....LET EVERY DEMOCRAT VOTE COUNT...COUNT TWICE...COUNT THREE TIMES IF NECESSARY.
Posted by: drw on September 14, 2007 01:25 PM