Oct 29 2009
Passing the constitutional convention initiative
The backers of an initiative to call a constitutional convention have passed the first hurdle - they have the measure approved by the Secretary of State and are on their way to collecting signatures so the measure can qualify for the Nov 2010 ballot.
Then there is whole secondary issue - whether the voters will pass it.
Whether the voters are going to pass the measure, whether they even pay attention to the measure, will depend on a lot of factors. If there are a ton of other, more socially or economically charged issues on the ballot, chances are that is where the money is going. The money will not flow to the constitutional convention measure if this is the case. People give money to the “hot” political topic of the moment.
There have been threats of a paycheck protection measure to be placed on the November 2010 ballot - which the unions are against. This means union money will go to the campaign against that, rather than to a campaign about governmental reform - which by contrast is not a sexy political topic. If a measure to over-turn Prop. 8 gets placed on the ballot for November 2010, that issue will take a lot of the focus away from the possible constitutional convention. Remember the fight over Prop. 8 the first time around? Imagine the fight the second time around. These are all issues that would detract from a constitutional convention measure.
To make matters even more confusing, there are two measures that have to pass in order for the constitutional convention to happen. The first is the measure which gives the voters power to call the constitutional convention, now or in the future. The second is the measure to actually call the convention now. Both have to pass in order for the constitutional convention to occur.
Delegates must be sent to the constitutional convention to represent the people of California in the decision making. How those delegates are chosen is very confusing, and very eliminating. If you have been involved in politics, you aren’t eligible. So instead, people who will be delegates are those who haven’t been involved in government and probably haven’t been involved in politics, and probably don’t have any education on the issue. That’s exactly who I want involved in creating a new constitution. Most people won’t understand this issue, and many will vote no on the measure because this is too confusing.
The constitutional convention is a pipe-dream. It won’t happen. No one will be able to agree on what the new constitution will look like, those people who know what they are talking about won’t agree because they cannot be involved in the process. The whole issue is too confusing and people won’t vote for it. In addition, there are too many people who don’t want it because of the issues that might be opened up in the convention.
It simply won’t happen.
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It isn’t a dream. People want reform and this is the only way it will happen. a constitution was made once upon a time, when not again? Yo uare claiming that special interests will get in the way, when what you don’t want is the liberals organizing the constitution. you want everyone to have a say - but you don’t want everyone to say anything at all. voters are smarter tha nyou think, and they will manage to call a convention. just wait and see -the convention will happen and the resulting document will be better. you don’t need to know political theory or political anything to help create a better constitution. you just need to know what people wnat to have done with government. we want services. we want education. we want help to those who need it. we can do a constitution - just wait and see.